


With Me

by Mettaton_Ex



Category: Homestuck
Genre: 90sstuck, Eventual Smut, F/F, I attempt to write smut, I blame this on a post I made, M/M, Playlist, Recreational Drug Use, Underage Drinking, awkward teenagers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-29
Updated: 2014-08-28
Packaged: 2018-02-10 21:00:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 22,285
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2039976
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mettaton_Ex/pseuds/Mettaton_Ex
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He was just. </p><p>Staring at you. </p><p>Like he was waiting for you to do something, or worse- working up the nerve to do something himself. He opened his mouth, and closed it, waiting a moment before climbing off you, not bothering to sit back down. He wanted to leave.<br/>You looked at the luminous watch on your wrist (shut up, it was cool) and- yeah. It was getting kind of late. Considering it was a school night, and all. “Dave…”</p><p>“Come on. Don’t want you to go to bed too late, do we? Early bird gets the worm, and all that shit.” He cocked his head and he looked down at you, waiting for you to get up. “John…”</p><p>You stood up, brushing your pants off and looking at him. “What?”</p><p>“A guy could really fall in love with you, y’know.”</p><p>__</p><p>8TRACKS PLAYLIST: http://8tracks.com/bakeroni/with-me-an-a03-fanfic-mix</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. April 9th, 1994

**Author's Note:**

> This. This is what I was putting Libido off for. I've got the second part written already, but I don't want to post it until I've got the third part mostly written. I want to be organised.
> 
> Anyway, I really hope you enjoy this, I certainly enjoyed writing it.  
> And please check out the playlist! It's filled with 90's-early 00's music that reminds me of the fic, and general teenage angst.

**April 9th, 1994**

Your troubles started on April 9th, 1994. Well, you'd hasten to say ' _troubles_ ', as such, but more the difficulties with dealing with your best friend, they started on April 9th, 1994.

The spring of that year was eventful, to say the least. You were dangerously approaching your 18th birthday, about to finish high school and trip up into the world of adulthood and working. Which was, honestly, fucking terrifying. It wasn't long ago that you were climbing trees and eating sand as a kid, and now, there you were, a few months from graduating. You had already picked out a College and your teachers were certain you'd get in. Everything was going well for you!  
Dave, too. He wasn't doing as bad as everyone expected him to do. Turns out, he was really smart when he put his mind to it! Probably smarter than you, even. He just had a way with words that you found wonderful.

Or, whatever.

It was around eight in the evening when he rang you. You were just about finished with your Calc homework, and you had half a mind to call him anyway, to see if he had done it too. It was always a battle knowing whether he had, or not. You picked up after the first two rings.

"Hello?"

"Hey, man." You heard, on the other line. Your face broke into a wide smile before you could help it.

"Hey, Dave. What's up? Have you done the Calculus homework yet?"

There was a pause on the line, a tentative crackle until he spoke again. "No, um. Can you come over?" He asked. You frowned. Normally, if he hadn't done his work it'd be ten minutes of complaining about how _'that fuckin' teacher's out to get me'_ and _'I'll make a name for myself, Egbert, just you wait and see'_. But no, it was just that. And that worried you.

"Yeah, sure. I'll be over in a second."

"Yeah, bye."

"See you." And you hung up, dropping the wireless receiver onto the bed, closing your bedroom door, and opening your window. Barely two feet away was Dave's house, and his window was already open for you to slip through.

  
You're sure that was one of the few reasons you became friends. Because your houses were so close together.

When you first met, about ten years prior, when Dave, and his two brothers moved into the house next door, he was the weird, loner kid, and you were the kid who wanted to be friends with everyone. It didn't work at first, your efforts to make friends. His older brother made friends with your sister and cousin eventually, and with your friend's older sister, and they made a gang of their own. But for the practically socially inept Dave, it was near impossible. After about three months of trying to initiate him into the group of you, Jade and Rose, it finally worked. He was sat alone at lunch, without anything to eat, you sat down next to him and gave him half of your lunch, and the rest was history. You always joked that if food was the only thing that would win him over, you'd have thrown a bag of chips at him when he got out of the moving van, and he would always say that you should have, because that’d give you a use beyond your 'blistering hotness and fantastic ass'. He’d always proceed to nudge you and wiggle his eyebrows, making you go red and push him away.

You never liked this part- jumping from one window sill to the other. It look a lot of guts to do, and you were ashamed to admit that the first time you did it, you almost cried because you were so scared. Luckily, Dave always caught you, when he could. Apparently that wasn’t going to happen, today, though. And so you slipped on your sneakers, climbed out to crouch on the window sill, and jumped, landing on the other side (only just, you very nearly slipped, and had to cling onto the window frame for support), scraping your knee a little and climbing through. What you were met with was actually, rather pathetic.

  
The main lights were out, and the only source of light came from a dimly flickering tv at the end of Dave’s bed, playing a band that he liked, but you were never too crazy about. They were okay, you guessed, but you always preferred stuff from the 80’s. Dave, meanwhile, was the kind of moody teen that loved depressing songs about how they can’t get the girl they love or their girl left them, or angsty shit about growing up and how being a teenager in America _just wasn’t fair._  
The moody teen in question was curled up on his bed, with his headphones attached to his walkman, listening to something at top volume. He was wearing his worn Nirvana shirt, and had his shades pushed onto the top of his head. He was literally just on the phone to you, how could he go back to listening to music that quickly? He looked over at you and sat up slipping the headphones to go around his neck. “Hey.”

“Hey. What’s up with you? You look miserable.” You pointed out helpfully, and moved over to the light switch. You flicked on the light, and he hissed a little, like a goddamned vampire, flipping his shades back down and scowling at you. “You know, if you didn’t constantly wear those shades, your eyes wouldn’t be as bad.” You added.

“I don’t care.” He replied, shortly. He pressed pause on the walkman and frowned deeper. “My eyes are fine.”

“Sure.” You pulled off your shoes and came to sit on his bed, moving to sit cross legged opposite him. “Why did you want me to come over?” You asked.

He cleared his throat. “Kurt Cobain...shot himself. They found his body yesterday. Just found out.”

_That was it?_

Obviously, death was sad, and it sucked, but...Jesus, you thought it was something personal, rather than a celebrity death! Jeez, you’d even take the death of Dave’s evil pet bird (seriously, you hated that little shit), because at least Dave actually knew it personally!

...Okay, maybe it was sort of harsh to compare a feathery fuck’s life to an incredibly influential artist’s, but still.

“Oh. I’m sorry, Dave.” You tried to comfort him, but you were kind of having trouble doing so. You didn’t exactly care about Nirvana’s music. They were okay, but… Dave seemed upset, though. So you could at least pretend.

He shrugged and drew his knees to his chest. “It was too soon.”

You nodded, understandingly, and pet his shoulder. “I know, man.”

Dave made a small, sad sound, and shifted closer, dropping his head onto your shoulder. “It’s not fair.”

“I know.” Your hand slipped from his shoulder to pull him into a proper hug, resting your head on top of his. You always found that you lived for this, despite the apparent circumstances and reason for the hug. All in all, it was nice.

  
The two of you sat there on the bed for what seemed like a while (You looked at the clock, discovering that it had been about an hour at least) , before you started getting dead leg, and you stretched, moving a little. He shot up and sent you a panicked look, as if he thought you were going, or something- You weren’t, you just needed to stretch, but you gave him a reassuring smile, anyway. “Still here.”

“Good.”

You moved your legs again (there was no way of moving on this tiny bed without falling off of it), and looked at him. You figured he needed to get out, and maybe clear his head. "Did you want to go to The Hill?"

The Hill was, in short, a place where teenagers would go to smoke weed and drink. You'd be a liar if you said you didn't partake in those activities, but you were determined that your dad wouldn't find out what you and Dave got up to. After all, even if Dave himself was good at lying to your dad, you certainly weren’t.

He considered it for a minute, before slipping the headphones from around his neck and laying them on the bed. "I got some stuff the other day. Guess we could share."

You knew exactly what he meant by _'stuff'_. "Oh yeah? You're a bad influence on me, Dave." Your mouth curved upwards into a grin, and you stood, toeing your sneakers back on.

He scoffed, shifting to the edge of his bed to blindly locate his own sneakers with his feet, and he looked up at you. "Bad influence my dick, you're that all by yourself, Egbert. Remember when you told me it'd be a good idea to jump between the art building and the faculty building? What did you say, _'do it or you're a pussy'_?"

Looks like he was already getting better. You presented him with your middle finger. "Who did you get it from this time?"

Dave found his sneakers and pulled them on. “Same guy I always get it from. Y’know Makara?”

“The guy who dropped out last year?”

He stood up. “The very same. Turns out he’s got a good hook up, sells it to me cheap.”

You laughed. “My dad’s gonna kill me if he ever finds out about this.”

“You say that every time, dude.” He pulled on the jacket hanging on the bedpost and slipped something- you knew what it was- from under his mattress into one of the pockets, putting his walkman into the other and hooking the headphones around his neck again. “And he probably won’t. Worst case scenario is he’ll sit you down and tell you that he’s disappointed, and he might force feed you a fucking madeira, or something. Those things are dry as hell. He won’t even let you get a glass of water or anything, that’s how disappointed he’ll be.”

The laugh you gave was less amused and more exasperated, and you pushed him in the direction of his door. “My dad doesn’t even like madeira.”

“A cake your dad doesn’t like?” He asked, astounded. He opened the door and slipped out, flicking his light off after you and closing the door again. “I never thought I’d see the day.”

“Shut up.” You snorted, making your way down the stairs. You made it about halfway before stopping and looking back up at him. “I don’t think they sell madeira in the Betty Crocker range, anyway.”

“Why the fuck have we said madeira this many times? Maybe your dad’s the bad influence.” He

walked down and jabbed you in the side to get you moving, which you did, reluctantly and with an annoyed grunt. “That’s four times we’re said the word madeira. _Five_.”

“Stop saying it if it bothers you so much.” Your mouth curled into an easy smile and you got to the bottom of the stairs, looking through to the living room, where front door lay, and where Dirk and your cousin were sat, watching TV. They always hung out a lot. It was pretty weird, actually. But then again, you and Dave hung out constantly, too, so it wasn’t like you could talk.

“Where are you going?” Dirk asked, just as the two of you were about to leave the front door. You suggested that you leave through the back door, but Dave said no. No, that didn’t seem like a grandiose enough gesture. You apparently had to own that exit. ' _Make that exit your bitch_ ', Dave said. That, and the fact that you’d have to climb over a fence in the back garden otherwise. And you both knew how much of a bad idea that was, after a certain mishap involving an eight foot fence, a five foot, 12 year old you, and a water fight gone horribly wrong. You still had scars from the stitches you needed to get.

“Out.” Dave replied, bluntly. “Don’t wait up, _mom_.”

Dirk tsk’ed and turned the TV up a little higher, draping an arm over your cousin’s shoulders. The cousin in question, Jake, smiled at you and gave a little wave. “Where are you off?”

“The Hill.” You supplied helpfully, and Dave jabbed you in the side with his bony elbow. You scowled and elbowed him back, resulting in an impromptu elbowing match.

The two other boys, of course, ignored your petty fighting. “Remember The Hill, Dirk?” Jake asked, turning his head towards Dave’s brother. “We had many an escapade there.”

Dirk hummed in agreement. “Speaking of, I wouldn’t mind having another adventure _right now_.”

“Eugh. No. _Nope_. Come on, Egbert. I think I’m going to beat my head against the wall if we don’t leave right now.” He tugged at your arm, opening the door and walking through.  You gave another grin at the two, who had since put their attention back onto the tv.

“Don’t wait up!” You said, ignoring the irritated chorus of _‘John, come on!_ ’ from Dave. Dirk waved half heartedly at you, turning his attention to Jake and smirking, and Jake gave you a smile, apparently unnoticing of Dirk’s sudden change in mood. You closed the door behind you, and caught up to Dave, who was stood at the end of the garden, hands in his pockets and a frown on his face.

  
“Took your time.” He commented. “Good thing it ain’t winter, I’d be freezing my balls off. I’d have a dickicle. Do you want that, John? Do you?”

You gave him a nudge of your elbow, grinning. “You _are_ a dickicle.”

“Good one, Egbert. How long’d it take you to think that one up? Two weeks?” He nudged you back.

“Just one. I didn’t think there was that much to do on The Hill. How did they go adventuring?”

Despite not being able to see his eyes, you could just tell Dave rolled them. “John, fucking hell.”

“ _What_?” You defended. He looked fully at you.

“Jesus Chr-- They were talking about _fucking_ , John.”

“What? They were not.”

“Uh, yeah they were. Unless you want to go back and ask my brother if he was sticking his dick into your cousin-- fucking Christ, can we change the subject?”

“Please, oh my God.” You were not going to think about your cousin taking it up the ass you were _NOT_.

The rest of the short trip was passed in silence. It could have been because of the previous awkward conversation, and partly because you both had nothing to say. You suspected that it was a little bit of both.  


The Hill was barren, unsurprisingly. It usually was, on a Tuesday. Normally most people would be at home, so the only time it would be anywhere near busy would be on a Friday or Saturday, That being said, less and less people seemed to go, compared to when Dirk and Jake would go (Stop thinking about them!), and more often than not the two of you would find yourself on your own. Which suited you fine.

It used to be an old park that had since been torn up For Health and Safety reasons in the late seventies, leaving only metal fencing here and there where they were unable to rip it out of the concrete, and a smooth paving of cement that probably had many a head cracked open on it.

You climbed up to the top, standing on a once grassy surface was worn hard and dusty by years of being underfoot. This wasn't the place you normally sat- standing here was just a case of watching the world go by, for a while. That, and waiting for Dave to get his ass up to where you were.

He eventually joined you, knocking you with his elbow as he passed, and tossing a smirk over his shoulder. You followed him, looking back over your own shoulder to give one last glance at the neighbourhood you just left. Another good reason about this not being your smoking place, you wouldn't be caught as easily if your dad wondered where you were, because you wouldn’t be in plain sight.  


The place you and Dave had dubbed as 'your spot' was still grassy, and was near to one of the rusted, ugly fences that they weren't able to pull from the ground. It was pretty secluded, compared to the rest of The Hill, nicer, and generally had less annoying people from their school. All in all, it was nice.

Dave sat down, pulling out his walkman and the small zip-lock bag of weed. It already had a pre rolled joint in there, and he fished it out, pulling out the lighter that he always kept in his pocket. He snapped the lighter open and on, a proper metal affair with a clockwork cog design on it. He had bought it a few months prior, and it was regarded as his pride and joy.

Dave watched the flame dance around as you sat down next to him, entranced for a moment, before snapping out of it and lighting the cigarette, pinching it in his fingers and taking a long drag. The ash glowed orange for a moment, before Dave flicked it off and handed it to you.  

You took it between two fingers, flicking your gaze back up to him, and then back down to it. The first time you had a hit, you almost threw up. Dave worried about you for what must have been half an hour, despite your reassuring it was fine, and that you were not in fact dying. He seemed to calm down after that, but he never urged you to take part after that. Whenever you did, it was off your own back, like now. You took a drag, holding it in for a moment before letting it go all at once, pale smoke rising from your mouth and floating up into nothingness. Dave took this as a signal to move and lie down, placing his head onto your lap and staring up at you.  


You liked this, inexplicably. For some reason, you liked it when Dave was clingy, would insist on touching his and hugging him and… but you didn’t know why you liked it. Just that you did- and you chose not to think beyond that. You had a tendency to overthink things, and you liked how things were now. You didn’t want to ruin your relationship with Dave.

...Friendship. Your friendship with Dave.

He uttered out a long sigh, plucking the joint from your fingers and taking another drag. “He was so young, man.” So he was still talking about Cobain’s death.

“I know, Dave.” You said. You meant for it to come out as sympathetic, but you were pretty sure it just sounded impatient. Not that he noticed.

“Wasted potential. If I had a nickel for every star that could’a had it all, Egbert. I’d be a very rich man. Very rich.”

“I know.” You repeated, sighing and looking up at the sky. It was fortunate enough that you lived in a small and remote enough town that the sky was unpolluted enough for you to see the stars.

It was an activity that you enjoyed since you were young, star gazing. It kind of reminded you of how small and insignificant humanity was, and how quickly man could fade away, and the stars wouldn’t even notice. But you were okay with that.

You didn’t mind.

“It’s not fair,” He grumbled (it sounded more like a whine, to be honest), handing you back up the cigarette. You took it and took a drag. You held in the smoke for a second or two and blew it out of your nostrils. You kind of felt like a dragon, doing that, but you kept the thought to yourself. “The great always die young.”

“Well, you’re still here.” You pointed out. It was the closest you’d go to admitting you thought your best friend was perfect without being completely off your face on narcotics.

“Maybe I’m not so great, then.” He mused. Not negatively, just like he was realising something for the first time. All of a sudden, you started giggling. You didn’t even know why; he hadn’t said anything funny, at all. Or maybe he did, because Dave started laughing too, mouth wide and head tipped back a little in your lap. You loved it when Dave laughed. “What?”

“You!” You exclaimed, patting his face with your free hand, recoiling with a grin when he licked a stripe up it. “Eugh, gross! Don’t do that!” He smirked and reached up, grabbing half heartedly at the joint before you rolled your eyes and moved your hand down to his lips, letting him take a drag. His laziness knew no bounds.

  
He waited a moment, savouring the drug before speaking. “Or else what?”

“Or else…” You thought, taking another drag and effectively finishing the short cigarette. For such a small hit, it as pretty strong stuff. You stubbed the last of it out on the grass and rolled him off of your lap. This earned you a grunt and a surprised look. “I’ll do this!” And you reached down, starting to tickle the blonde.

If there was one thing about Dave, it was that he was hilariously, adorably, insatiably ticklish. And you would use that to your advantage to get what you wanted more often than you would have liked to admit (all the time). He shrieked a very unmanly scream and tried to roll away, not having the sense to actually get up and walk away- there was ample room to, you didn’t understand why he didn’t just do that. You trapped him the the cage of your arms and continued to tickle his ribs and under his armpits, moving away from his writhing and his kicking legs.

“Y-you fuck, ha ha-- g-get _off_.” He wheezed, giggling feebly and trying to slap your hands away, to no avail. You took no prisoners.

“Or else what?” You mimicked him, smirking, but yelping when Dave pushed you onto your back and did the same to you, trapping you under his arms and climbing onto you to pin you down. It occurred to you that this was getting overtly sexual- but you didn’t know why. “...Dave?”

If you could just, lean up. Just close those extra inches, and press your lips against his...that was probably the weed talking. Not you. Definitely not you.

  
And besides.

He was just. Staring at you. Like he was waiting for you to do something, or worse- working up the nerve to do something himself. He opened his mouth, and closed it, waiting a moment before climbing off you, not bothering to sit back down. He wanted to leave.

You looked at the luminous watch on your wrist (shut up, it was cool) and- yeah. It was getting kind of late. Considering it was a school night, and all. “Dave…”

“Come on. Don’t want you to go to bed too late, do we? Early bird gets the worm, and all that shit.” He cocked his head and he looked down at you, waiting for you to get up. “John…”

You stood up, brushing your pants off and looking at him. “What?”

“A guy could really fall in love with you, y’know.”

  
…

What?

“What did you say..?” You laughed, nervously, hoping he'd play it off as a joke, or for irony, but he didn’t. He just smiled softly and almost sadly, turning to walk down The Hill, not bothering to wait for you.

You were kind of hoping he’d repeat what he said. Maybe you misheard! Perhaps he said something totally different!

But you didn’t know why you were trying to kid yourself. You knew exactly what he said, and you didn’t need him to repeat what he said to know he was saying the exact same thing. The words were practically tattooed onto your brain.

_A guy could really fall in love with you, y’know._

  
And you really didn’t know how you felt about that.  
  


**April 10th, 1994**

You hadn’t been able to sleep until the early hours of that morning. You just kept thinking-- thinking about what Dave said, and how sad he looked just before you left. He left you at your doorstep, not bothering to touch you or hug you or even look at you as he muttered a ‘’night’ and walked down the path from your house, before walking into his own house without another word. When you went back upstairs to your room, before you went to shower, he had shut his window and closed his curtains. This was clearly bothering him. And that worried you.

Surely he was joking about loving you, right?

Right! Of course!

And even if he wasn’t he could have just meant someone else, he could have been generalising!

You could ask him, actually. Yeah. Yeah, that’s what you’d do.

It’d be chill, just walk up to him, say ‘hey Dave, what did you mean yesterday?’

_Easy._  


And that's exactly what you did. Sort of.

You waited for five minutes after you would normally leave for school for him at his house that morning. Normally, he could be out by now, be it still half asleep, complaining about something or other, still pulling on his shoes and dragging his backpack behind him on the ground until his eldest brother shouted at him to ‘ _pick the damn thing up or so help me God_ ’. But instead, there was no one. You waited a little longer, before giving up and walking up the path, knocking on the door and waiting for someone to answer. A few seconds later, some feet approached the door, and it was pulled open. You came face to face with your cousin.

Now, considering what you and Dave discussed the night before, you couldn’t help but jump to  conclusions. So as you stared at your cousin, and your cousin stared at you, you could only think to say one thing.

“Good night?” You asked. Jake opened his mouth, and closed it again, repeating the motion a few times before he kind of looked like a goldfish, and proceeded to let his cheeks glow an embarrassed red. Dirk came up behind him and quirked an eyebrow at you.

“Didn’t you leave with Dave?” He asked. You frowned. You didn’t see him leave...and you would have gotten a call from him if he did want to leave early. So you didn’t quite know what was up.

“No?”

“Oh,” It was his turn to frown, just a little. “He said you were waiting outside…” He thought for a moment, before asking. “Not that I'd normally ask you, but is something wrong with the asshole?”

There definitely was something with him, when you left, and the fact that he left without you only secured that. You shrugged. “He started acting weird last night...I don’t know, I’ll ask him.”

“...Good.” Dirk said after a moment, and Jake took this as his cue to leave. He cleared his throat awkwardly and inched around you to stand out in the front garden.

“I’ll...see you later then, Dirk!” He waved at both you and Dirk, pushing his hands into his pockets, walking backwards a couple of steps with a slightly uncomfortable smile, and then walking back normally down a couple of blocks to where he lived.

_Yeah, I bet you will._

_Oh,Christ. No, stop thinking about that!_

  
With that, you were standing on the Strider household’s doorstep, watching Dirk watching you through those stupid anime shades, and feeling like you should really get out of there.

“Care to elaborate?” He asked. “What exactly do you mean by ‘ _weird_ ’?”

Oh boy. You weren’t quite sure how to talk about what Dave told you, or even if you wanted to talk about it at all, so you kind of just stood there, before looking at your watch (you were so glad you remembered to put it on today, otherwise you would have looked like an asshole) and sighing dramatically. “Look at the time!” You exclaimed. “I better get to school! Don’t want to break my perfect attendance record!”

He didn’t look happy, but he didn’t stop you. He was probably going to quiz Dave about it once he got home, if he hadn’t already. He may have acted like a dick for the most part, but both of Dave’s older brothers worried a lot about him, even if they didn’t show it. You gave him a wave, exactly as awkward as the one Jake gave you barely two minutes ago, and you left.

  
You got to school fairly early, in the hopes of catching Dave before homeroom started, but he wasn’t there. If he had set off early, where was he?

After a while, you noticed your friend sitting down and pulling out a book from her bag not far from you. You waved at her, trying to catch her attention. She eventually looked up, and replacing the immaculate bookmark into her book and putting it down on the desk.

Rose Lalonde was someone you both trusted with your life, and feared with all of your being. Trusted, because she was smart, knew how to handle most, if not all situations, and gave some of the best advice you could get from a macabre eighteen year old. Feared, because she was very good at poking through your mind and telling you what you were thinking. And that just wasn’t right. Even though in the long run, it was in your best interests, it was weird and you didn’t like it.

But, she seemed to know everything that was going on with Dave, so you had to ask her. You advanced to her desk, crouching down next to it and leaning your arms on it. You smiled up at her. “Good morning!”

“Remarkably peppy, as always, John. I, meanwhile, still look like I’m half asleep.” You found that hard to believe; she always looked immaculate, in your opinion. You weren’t surprised you had a crush on her in Middle School.That was before she told you that she was a lesbian. But that was okay, obviously. You got over your crush quickly and decided you were much better friends, anyway.

“You look great!” You defended.

She shook her head and laughed, though not unkindly. “I’m not sure how you do it. So, to what do I owe the pleasure?” She asked. Her black lacquered fingers pressed down on the shiny sleeve of the book she was reading, and her black lipsticked mouth was curled into a smile.

“It’s a family secret, passed on along the generations..” You teased. Not really, you were just a morning person. “I just wondered if you knew where Dave was. Apparently he left without me on our way to school, and he hasn’t arrived here. He was acting pretty weird last night. His brother thought so, too.”

The smile she wore dropped into a frown, and she shook her head. “No, I haven’t seen him since before school let out yesterday. He hasn’t called me, which is a little unusual, considering we have homework due in today… in what way was he acting odd?” She asked. You froze momentarily, trying to make your sudden pause and drop in mood look natural as you tried to think of how to explain how he was acting odd without making Rose jump to ridiculous conclusions, as she inevitably would.

“Well… he said something really weird, last night. It’s kind of funny, thinking about it.” You said, with a short, nervous laugh.

“Oh?” The book was completely forgotten and abandoned by now, replaced by her insatiable curiosity.and need to meddle. That’s what made you almost want to laugh-- she wanted to meddle, and she didn’t even know what it was, yet. “Weird in what respect?”

“Hmm,” You looked either side of you, before leaning up and speaking quieter. “He told me that a guy could ‘ _really fall in love_ ’ with me.” You moved back to your original position, with another awkward titter. “Weird, huh? He makes such weird jokes!”

Her mouth was a straight line. She wasn’t laughing, she didn’t even look shocked. Just like… she was expecting it. “John.” She began.

“Yes?”

“How do you feel about Dave?”

“What does that mean?” You asked, your brows furrowing, and you shifted again. “He’s my best friend, isn’t he?”

“Well. What do like about him?” She persisted, her elegant eyebrows raised under her fringe, and her chin propped on a pale palm.

“What _isn’t_ there to like? He’s great! You know…”

“I don’t know, he’s not that great.” The smile was back, but you didn’t really notice. You were too busy defending your best friend’s honour!

“He is! He’s funny, and kind, and smart, and he makes me happy, and he’s-”

“Handsome?” She supplied, helpfully.

“Totally, the hottest!” You agreed excitedly, because hell yeah, Dave was totally the cutest! “No homo, though.” You added, seriously. Because you weren’t a homosexual. No matter how wonderful your best friend was.

“Oh no, _definitely_ not.” She agreed, equally as seriously, but the wry little smile was still present. The bell look this as its cue to ring, and you gave your friend a wide smile, getting up and returning to sit at your desk. The desks in your homeroom were in desperate need of replacement, the undersides of them were covered in a thick layer of five year old chewing gum and spit balls, and anyone unlucky enough to touch it would probably get some kind of disease, or at least need some kind of shot.  


Throughout homeroom, Dave didn’t come into the class. There was no ‘Sorry I’m late, I was asleep probably’, no poke in the back with his pen, no stupid joke that left you a giggling mess and scolded by your homeroom tutor. You missed it.

Homeroom finished, and you went about your first two lessons, before break. After that, hanging out with Karkat in the library, and trying to tease him without making him scream, you had your English lesson, with Dave. You hoped that, at least, he’d be in this lesson. You were starting to get worried. He had already missed Calculus, and the teacher wasn’t very happy with that, but that was the least of your worries, how that miserable as fuck teacher was feeling about the situation.

You arrived early, and as expected, no sign of Dave. It wasn’t too much trouble, you had finished all the notes from the previous lesson, and it was mostly just studying for finals. You could let him copy from you.

Sitting down and getting your books out, you started to read over and make notes, getting through a page of notes before someone sat down heavily beside you, making you jump and drop your pen.

“Jesus, Egbert, chill your tits. It’s just me, nothin’ to shit yourself over.” Dave was smirking as he got his own notes out, but he wasn’t looking at you.

“My tits are perfectly chilled. Completely iced.” You leaned down to pick up your pen and drop it back on the desk. By this time, he had his book open, but he wasn’t reading, or taking notes, or really looking at his book at all. “...Why weren’t you in, earlier?”

“What’d you mean?”

“I waited for you outside your house, like always. Dirk said you set off early.”

“Oh.” He shifted, hunching his shoulders and moving a little further away from you, like he thought you wouldn’t notice. You did. “Just wanted to hang out by myself for a bit. Sorry.”

You bit the inside of your lip, looking around for a moment before speaking again. “What did you mean?”

“What?” He asked. He knew exactly what you meant. And he knew that you knew.

“You know.” You leaned closer, and you could have sworn he leaned away. Maybe it was just your imagination, though. “‘A guy could really fall in love with you’.”

“Wow, Egbert, that’s real flattering, but-”

“Don’t play dumb!” You exclaimed, a little loudly, and the teacher looked up, glaring. You gave her an apologetic smile and quietened down, smile dropping. “What did you mean.”

“I don’t remember sayin’ that, John. Must be your imagination. You were smoking some crazy shit last night.”

That was true. But so was he. So, for all you knew, if he did say that, he might not have meant it.

You stamped down the disappointment settling heavily in your chest, and got to work. At least, if you did your studying, you didn’t have to think about the words you thought you heard him say.


	2. July 5th 1994

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EXCITED NOISES
> 
> Okay so I've decided I will put some sex in this in the last part, so the rating will go up  
> I really enjoyed writing this??? It was all mushy and angsty and I was listening to the playlist I made for it (which is pretty hella) and blah blah 
> 
> One more part to go!! And then you can get the smut. Promise.

**July 5th 1994**

Exam period came and went, and it was two weeks before your graduation, and a week before prom. You had to admit that… ever since that night, you and Dave had been drifting apart. Ever since he said those words (or did he? You weren’t sure), the air was tense between the two of you.  
You thought about what he said near enough every night. It was hard not to. You found that you thought about him a lot, too. You did, even before that fateful evening. The way he walked, the way he’d smile when he was alone with you. The way you’d catch him looking at you when he thought you weren’t looking at him, and then quickly look away when you looked up, with a bright blush on his pale face. You kind of hoped he didn’t notice how much you tended to look at him, too.  
  
  
Your birthday was, for the most part, very pleasant. You stayed in and watched movies with Dave, Jade and Rose, choosing movie over bad movie. Dave complained, at one point, that if a movie ‘worse’ than Ghostbusters was ever written, he’d either kill himself or you. You laughed goodnaturedly and nudged him, and you started an impromptu nudging match, before he caught what he was doing, and stopped abruptly, shifting away from you. You pretended not to notice, but it hurt, and you didn’t know why.  
Rose knitted you a nice blue sweater and a hat for your birthday, making you promise to wear them when it came to be winter. Jade got you VCRs of Ghostbusters and Poltergeist, which you proceeded to watch. And Dave gave you one of his garishly wonderful tie dye t-shirts, because you borrowed it once, and he apparently took that as a sign that he was your role model and you wanted to be like him. You laughed and called him big-headed, but put it to one side. You wore it more often than you wanted to admit. It smelled like him, even after being washed.

And it may or may not have got you hoping for things that you swore against ordinarily.

The four of you ended up passed out on the couch, and you woke up first the following morning, cuddled up to Dave, with his arm around your shoulders and yours snaked around his waist. You knew you were a hugger in your sleep, but you didn’t realise Dave was, too. Despite years of sleepovers, he had only started doing it in the last three years. You didn’t mind.  
Dave was, in actual fact, very warm, and it seemed a shame to pull away from him at such a crucial time. So you had no choice but to snuggled back into his arms, your head on his chest, and rest for a while longer.  
You could have sworn, at one point, he kissed the top of your head, and the butterflies that lay dormant in your stomach erupted into life.  
  
  
You were brought back to the present from your memory with the lunchtime bell, and the sudden activity of kids leaving the classroom. You packed away your own stuff and slung your rucksack over your shoulder, following the crowd out of the doors and walking to the cafeteria. Jade and Rose sat at a table in the far back-- your table, though not for much longer, you reminded yourself-- and you got food before making your way over and sitting next to your cousin, as you always did. As expected, Dave wasn’t there. He was probably in detention or something, all of those unfinished homeworks coming around to bite him in the ass. Karma’s a bitch. You were both glad, and mournful of the fact. Glad, because those weird feelings that you kept in the back of your subconscious that you didn't understand would subside a little if you weren't thinking about him and he wasn't there, and mournful because you missed his touch, his smile and...

This was starting to sound _kind of gay_.

Jade smiled and bumped your elbow with hers, and took a sip of her juice before speaking. “Guess what?”

“Godzilla is rampaging across town, searching for you so he can murder you in cold blood?” You guessed. Apparently you weren’t close, because she rolled her eyes and grinned.

“No. Close, though. Guess again.”

“That’s all I’ve got. What is it?” You took a bite of the macaroni and cheese you got for lunch. It was terrible. You’d complain to the chef, but all you’d get would be a glare and probably someone spitting into your lunch the next time you got it.

“Karkat invited me to senior prom.” Another sip of her juice and she put it down, grinning.

Senior prom was a thing that was happening, wasn’t it? An evening when eighteen year olds would get together, and get drunk and lose their virginities to their date, or perhaps someone they’d never consider actually sleeping with.  
You recalled that Jade was on the prom planning committee, it was practically all she talked about for the last few months, and she had actually put a lot of effort into what she vowed would be the best senior prom to date.

“Karkat? _Shouty_ Karkat?” Of course it was Karkat. No one else would have a name that weird, and everyone and their grandma knew that he had a thing for Jade.  
  
“Yep!” She chirped. You looked back, a little further up the hall, where Karkat was sitting with his other friends, and you jabbed a thumb at him, confirming that it was definitely him. He apparently noticed, because he looked up and flipped you off. _Charming_.  
  
“He’s very gentlemanly, if he tries hard enough.” Rose interjected, looking up from her lunch and beginning to pay more attention to you and Jade than what could barely be counted as food on her tray. "A Prince Charming, if you will."

“If I called him Prince Charming, he might try to kill me.” You chuckled. “I think I’ll just annoy him with my mere presence, instead.”

“Best leave the Karkat torture to Dave. He is a professional, after all.” Rose said.

“Seriously, though!” Jade interrupted. “He’s so _sweet_! He asked me yesterday, he gave me flowers, and everything. It was really romantic, it was adorable.”

“Karkat _is_ adorable.” You agreed, solemnly.

“What’re you sayin’ about my beau?” Dave asked from behind you. You had just about mastered not jumping when he suddenly appeared from behind you. You were unable to stop the flinch, though. You just hoped he didn’t notice. “A little twitchy, John?”

Damn it.

“No.”

"Where have you been, young man?" Rose chastitised with a smirk. "I said lunch at one, it's now one fifteen."

"Sorry Mom, you know I love your home cooking. But I had detention." He sat down and stole some fries from Rose’s tray.

“What did you do now?” She asked, slapping his hand as he stole a second handful.

“Didn’t do my homework for Biology for the entire year. Apparently karma is a bitch and-- _fuck_.” He looked up across the cafeteria, and scrambled under the table, close to your legs. You heard his voice sound from underneath the table. “I’m not here.”

“Oh, And why aren’t you here, Dave?” Rose asked, looking up across the cafeteria, at the supposed cause of his panic.

“Did you do something stupid again?” Jade added.

“ _Again_?” He echoed sourly. “Fuck off, everything I do is carefully thought out and-oof.” The stopped abruptly, and then spoke again, sounding really offended. “You _kicked_ me.”

“Because your captor is approaching the table. So you should probably shut up. At least pretend you’re good at hiding.” You took the opportunity then to look back at whoever was coming steadily towards your table. Your biology teacher, knowing that you were friends with Dave, stopped at your table and smiled. Though, it could probably be described as more of a sneer. He was not a friendly looking man.

“Sir?” You greeted carefully. More often than not, he was in a bad mood. You didn’t want to get your head bitten off for saying the wrong thing.

“Egbert.” He nodded curtly at the girls, and talked. “Have you seen Strider anywhere? The little sh- _smart alek_ , slipped out of detention while I went out to get something.”

“Oh no, sir. We haven't.” Rose piped up, smiling pleasantly. “But if you ask me, he’s throwing his life away by disobeying your orders.”

“Yeah,” Jade agreed solemnly. “He is a terrible influence on us girls, isn’t he?”

“Mm.” Rose nodded, equally as solemnly.

“And an equally terrible student.” You added. From under the table, Dave pinched the underside of your thigh and you jumped, face flushed and your unassaulted leg kicking Dave. The teacher looked down at you, quirking an eyebrow.

“Is there a problem, Egbert?”

“A problem?” You asked. Your voice was a little bit higher than normal due to the surprise, and you were trying not to react to a second pinch. “No, no problem. Why would there be a problem? The only problem here is-” Dave squeezed your thigh this time, and it took everything you had not to make a really unmanly squeal. “Is Dave’s attitude to work.” The guy in question's hand stayed on your leg, and you really didn’t know how you felt about this because on the one hand his hand felt really warm and nice on your leg but on the other-

"Yes, well. Send him my way if you see him."

"Will do, sir!" Jade smiled widely, saluting, and it seemed impossible how such an infectious smile couldn’t affect the teacher. He grunted, looked around once again, and left the table, exiting the cafeteria.

A moment's silence, and. "Is he gone?"

"He's gone." Rose confirmed, and it took a second before Dave moved, sliding his hand from your thigh and over your knee as he moved away and up from under the table.

"A terrible influence? A bad student? _Really_? Fuck you guys, I thought you were my friends."

"You know very well we could have very easily sold you out." Rose responded smoothly, watching as he crawled from under the table and stood.

"Yeah, Dave. You know you love us." Jade teased, looking pointedly at you, and making sure Dave knew exactly who she was looking at. Dave rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly and mumbled something, going the slightest shade of pink, before clearing his throat.

"Right, kids. Gotta skedaddle. Hit up the ol' dusty trail. I got people to see, places to be, et cetera et cetera."

"Just go, already." Rose shooed him away, and he made an overly exaggerated movement as if to roll his eyes.

“Fine, _Mom_. Jesus, that eager to get rid of me?” He asked, sticking his tongue out. Jade laughed and shooed him off, too. Her fingers were covered in multicoloured strings; more than usual. It was a wonder how she knew what each one meant!

“Go! Before he finds you!” Jade flapped her hands at him again, and he got the message, moving further away from the table and closer to...you.

"Bye, Dave. I'll...see you later?" You asked. As much as these feelings freaked you out, you couldn't help the inexplicable urges to be with Dave. Although you weren’t completely sure what they meant, sometimes...it meant every sense in the world, to want to be with him.

"...Yeah. Later, man." He gave a smile. Not that trademark 'lady killer' smirk, or that shit eating grin, but a smile. Almost like, you thought, the smile he gave you on that night.  
Sad.   
He moved a hand to ruffle your hair, and kept his fingers threaded through the dark locks for a moment before he seemed to catch himself and leave.  
  
  
And just like that, the attention was turned to you. You felt like a lamb called in for the slaughter. A rabbit cornered by two ravenous wolves.  
Very poetic.  
Dave would approve.

“How are you, John?” Rose asked, coolly. Her curled hand lowered onto the table, and her nails- they were purple, today- clicked lightly on the surface.

“I’m…” How were you? You were confused, for a start. Confused about the stirring in the pit of your stomach whenever Dave touched you, and it was only made worse by what happened on your birthday...if it even did happen. You could have just imagined it. But why would you imagine it, unless you were… “I’m fine.”   
You stopped that train of thought abruptly.

“Fine?” Jade piped up, leaning closer to you with a wide grin. “Are you suure~?”

“Yes! Of course I am!” You were feeling increasingly less and less fine as the conversation went on.

“Hmm…” She hummed to herself, still smiling wolfishly. After a moment of staring and making you feel uncomfortable, she leaned across the table, smirk in place, and asked you, quietly; “John, are you a homosexual?”

If you were eating at that point, and not already put off by how terrible your lunch tasted, you would have either choked on your food, or spat it out rather unattractively onto the table. “What!?”

“Are you?” Rose pressed.

“No!” A laugh of disbelief caught on your voice, and you could feel your face grow red. What gave them that idea? Why would they even  _ask_ that!?

Unless.

Oh _fuck_. You didn’t realise that your weird feelings were that noticeable! You weren’t even sure what these weird feelings were!

“I’m not gay!” You persisted, a little too loud. Someone turned around from the neighbouring table, quirking their eyebrow, and you were pretty sure someone else called out a _'congratulations, buddy'_ from the other side of the cafeteria. You smiled apologetically and quietened down, leaning close to the two girls. “I’ve dated girls!”

“You dated _a_ girl. Vriska, for three months. The furthest you got with her was touching her backside and making out with her in the stairwell.” Rose corrected.

“How do you even know that?” You whined. “It still counts! I’m not a homosexual!”

“ _Fine_.” Rose rolled her eyes, but stayed where she was. “You can like boys and not be gay, you know. You can like both. It’s called bisexuality, John.”

“I think Sollux is bisexual.”

Rose nodded at Jade. “He is.” She turned her attention back at you. “What I am trying to ask, to be blunt- not that I wasn’t already being as blunt as I could possibly be- are you infatuated with our dear friend Dave?”

Were you? Could you count wanting to hear his voice at any possible moment as infatuation? Was craving his touch infatuation? Was waving the dull ache in your chest infatuation?

Was wanting to kiss your best friend, and never letting him go, infatuation?

“Yes.” You said, without thinking. You averted your gaze down to your unappetizing lunch, and then back up to the girls. "He's my best friend."

Where you thought they’d be smirking, or laughing at you, they were just giving you a soft smile.

That same _fucking_ smile that Dave gave you that night.

“John?” Rose asked. You took a few moments before you directed your attention to her. “Are you in love with Dave?”

And you didn’t know how to answer that one.

Your head was pounding and your mouth was dry, and the pit of your stomach felt painfully empty. Did you love Dave?

Well. Of course you did! He’s your best friend! You’d do anything for him!

...Were you in love with him?  
  
  
You sat up abruptly, the chair you sat on pushing back with a loud scraping on the worn cafeteria floor. The two girls looked at you, eyes filled with pity, and silent understanding and you just couldn’t take it anymore.

“I’ll see you guys later.”

“John-”

“Bye.” And you left the table. Left the cafeteria. You fucking left the school, willing yourself not to burst into tears on the sidewalk even though these feelings scared you, and being accused of being in love with your best friend was confusing, because you didn’t knew if you were.

And you didn’t know why, despite that, and despite all this confusion and reevaluation of your sexuality, you were so sure that you wanted to kiss him.

You arrived home quicker than you thought you would to an empty house. Which was to be expected-- your dad wouldn’t be home until six, but it would have been nice to have someone to talk to; have someone to help you figure out the mess that was your head.

You walked up stairs to your room, and moved to the window to draw your curtains.

Dave’s own curtains were already pulled shut. He must have had the same idea as you; come home early, go to his room, and feel sorry for himself.

Though, you didn’t know what for.

He had nothing to be ashamed of. He didn’t silently yearn for his best friend. But if not, that wouldn’t explain every day you had been together since that night.

And before, too, thinking about it. Careless touches, hugs that went on for slightly too long.

It kind of made sense, now.

Maybe he, too...

  
You sank down onto your bed, curling up on your side. You were almost glad that school would be over in a matter of days. Then it would be prom, then graduation, and then, the adult world.

It would be fine. You’d never have to see Dave again!

...And yet, somehow. That seemed like the worst thing. You couldn’t not see Dave. Maybe you really were in...lo...love...

You had to stop.

You took off your glasses, slipped them onto the bedside table, and tried your hardest not to cry.

  
  


**July 12th, 1994**

****  
  


You ended up asking Vriska to prom. As friends, of course! She understood that, and you were very happy with it.  
You went suit shopping with your dad, and got yourself a properly fitting suit- black, with a white shirt and blue bow tie. It was the first time you realised you had pretty broad shoulders, and it was the first time you realised you looked pretty great. Puberty probably did you a lot of favours, as an apology for the teeth and the hair. You got a haircut, too, and it looked kind of okay. Altogether, you looked pretty classy, and your sister and Dad reminded you on the fact as they took pictures and sent you off on your way.  
You went to pick Vriska up in your dad’s car (He good naturedly told you that you’d be in huge trouble if you even thought about ruining his car), and her sister took some pictures of you. Her mother would move to fiddle with Vriska’s hair and straighten her dress in between pictures, giving small comments of disapproval that really didn’t seem that motherly to you. Vriska just smiled that toxically sweet smile that she gave to everyone she wanted to punch, and you both put up with the pictures, before you left her house.

Minutes later, and you were driving towards the school. Her house was on the outskirts of the town, so it was a long drive. A long drive, with plenty of time to think.

You hadn’t seen Dave since last week. School let up a few days after that day, with a short speech about how proud your various teachers were about your collective progress, and a lot of crying and hugging, and empty promises to stay in contact. You knew you’d stay in contact with Rose, and Jade was your cousin anyway. And Dave… well, you weren’t sure about Dave. You did want to see him, the more you thought the more it made sense that you wanted to spend every waking moment with him. But at the same time, you didn’t. You weren’t sure for certain that he even felt the same way about you, despite what he would say, and do. You couldn’t be sure until he said he loved you, or he did something that would confirm something that words couldn’t.

“If you’re going to be quiet, at least put the radio on.” Vriska grumbled. You blinked and turned briefly to her. She was very beautiful-- you didn’t understand why you couldn’t just love her, instead.  
You had been using the word ‘love’ to describe what you felt for Dave more recently. And… you weren’t sure how you felt about that.

“Haha… sorry. I’m thinking.” You gave a small laugh, stopping at a stoplight and flexing your fingers on the steering wheel.

“About Dave?” She asked, and when you snapped your head towards her, she had a knowing smirk on her face.

“I-”

“Relaaaaaaaax, John. I _know_. The entire school knows. Everyone and their fucking grandma knows. You’re not exactly a difficult book to read.”

“Everyone?” You echoed weakly. If she meant everyone, then…

“No, not him.” She shook her head, but the grin stayed plastered on her face. “He’s just as oblivious as you are.”

“What?”

“Stupid,” She knocked on your head lightly, and the traffic lights changed. You started to drive. “He’s obviously fifty shades of gay for you. You’d have to be Terezi not to notice!” She laughed (it was more of a cackle). The joke was in pretty bad taste, considering Terezi was blind. “Well,” She added, after a brief moment. “Even Terezi knows.”

“Well, how do _you_ know!?”

“Woman’s intuition, Egdork. I was pretty sure you were fawning over the loser when we were dating. I’d like to think I trained you up pretty good when it came to second base, for him.” She winked and laughed again.  
You wished you weren’t driving, otherwise you would have tried anything to get out of the car. Instead, you wound down the window as far as it would go. It was getting pretty stifling in here.

“...Is it really that obvious?”

She nodded, the grin lessening to something more genuine. “I’m kind of disappointed, to be honest. I really liked you. But I didn’t want to play second favourite.”

“I’m sorry.” You turned a corner, getting into the suburbs of the city. It’d be at least ten minutes before you got there. _Great_.

She flapped her hand, dismissing your apology. “Pleeeeeeeease, John. I’m _over_ it. I’ve got bigger fish to fry.” Her smile was still there, but her eyes weren’t in it. You tried not to think about how she was feeling.

“That’s good. I’m just glad we’re friends.”

“ _Great_ friends.” She agreed. And once more, the car was silent. She talked again, after about five minutes. “Do you love him?”

“He’s my best friend, of course--”

“You know what I mean.” She cut you off sharply. Of course you did. It was just scary to admit. “How do you feel about him?”

“I can’t think of being with anyone else. When I wake up, I kind of wish he was there next to me. I want to kiss him, and to touch him, and…” Your eyes were on the road, but you were speaking, and your eyes were determined to well up, but you were determined not to cry. “ I just want to be with him.”

It was another quiet moment, before she spoke again. “That’s love, idiot.”  
  
  
And maybe it was. It would make sense, and the blissful happiness you felt when he was present could be justified.  
You realised then that you felt like this for a lot longer than you realised. Maybe, as soon as you became friends, or the first time you hugged, or when you held hands when you lay on The Hill and watched the stars, or when you woke up curled up in each others’ arms after a sleepover. You recall feeling something inexplicable when he smiled, or laughed, or got changed in front of you, or touched your bare skin when you went swimming, or looked at you when he thought you weren’t looking, and got embarrassed when you caught him. Those feelings...you lived for them.

You decided, there and then.

You were in love with Dave Strider.

You loved him.

  
  
When you got there, the outside of the gym was decorated to the nines with streamers and balloons, and the boy in the wheelchair (one of Vriska’s friends, you recalled) was stamping people’s hands to let them into the prom, and asking them to vote for prom king and queen. Vriska linked your arm and dragged you over, smiling wolfishly at the poor boy.

“Tavros.” She addressed him, shortly, holding out her pale, willowy arm for him to stamp.

“Hey, Vriska.” The boy--Tavros, replied. He stamped her hand, and turned to you, quirking an eyebrow when you didn’t do anything. You were too busy basking in your new revelation. “Are you going to, hold your hand out?” He asked. “Or am I going to have to climb over the table?” He was smirking by the end of his sentence. You were surprised that a guy in his situation would afford to be such a sarcastic asshole. He had a point, though.

“Yeah, sorry.” You held your hand out, and he stamped it.

“Why aren’t you in there?” Vriska jerked a thumb towards the gym.

“I don't know if you've noticed, but can’t exactly, dance. Or walk about, for that matter.”

“Yeah,” She agreed. “You might crush people’s feet with the fucking wheels.”

Tavros laughed, nervously, and changed the topic. “Will you vote for the Prom King and Queen?”

“We all know who’s going to win it, anyway. Peixes and her lispy fuck of a boyfriend.”

“Well, Feferi is pretty nice, but…” Tavros trailed off. There was no use arguing with Vriska. “Is that a no..?”

“Fuck no. I’ll just vote for someone else.” She turned to you. “Fancy being Prom King, Johnny?”

You laughed distractedly. You were trying to see, from the people who were in the line behind you, whether Dave had arrived yet. Apparently not, unless he was already in there. “Knock yourself out.”

You wondered who he came with, if he came with anyone at all. Probably Terezi, he was really close to her, like siblings. You were half convinced that they had a thing going on, and you still felt kind of threatened by her presence. Not in a jealous, malicious way! You liked Terezi! It was just a natural reaction, you guessed.

“Okay, well. Enjoy the prom, you guys.” Tavros smiled and gave a small wave, and Vriska linked arms with you, pulling you like a ragdoll through the gym doors, and into a dark gym, transformed into a rather impressive display of purple and gold tapestry, balloons, streamers, and lights. There was a huge discoball spinning above the dancefloor, and on the dancefloor itself, there were multiple teenagers moving and dancing and grinding up against each other.

With that, Vriska kissed your cheek and squeezed your arm, letting go of you. “I’m going to go find ‘Rezi. Good luck with loverboy.” She winked, and started to turn away, before turning back. “If I see him, I’ll point him in your direction.”

“...Thanks.” Though you weren’t so sure why you were thanking her, considering she was just doing it for her own personal amusement, probably.

“Best of luck, sweetcheeks.” She knocked on the top of your head again, and left, waving a pale hand at you from behind her and grinning over her shoulder.  
  
  
After a few minutes of looking confused, and bumping into people, you found your way to the punch bowl, where Rose stood with her girlfriend. The two were talking-- gossiping, most likely, and when they saw you, their eyes lit up and their smiles grew.

They were talking about you, weren’t they. _Brilliant_.

“John,” Rose greeted. “We were just talking about you.”

You fucking called it.

“You look quite presentable, John.” Rose’s girlfriend, Kanaya, said. That was a very high honour, coming from her. “You tidy up very nicely.”

“He _does_ , doesn’t he?” Rose agreed. She had a glass of punch in her hand, and she sipped it delicately, frowning. “You would think this was mixed by my mother.”

Your eyebrows raised, and you took a cup of your own, and drank. It wasn’t strong, per se. One of those sugary, girly alcoholic drinks that got you drunk without your noticing. “I didn’t know we were allowed alcohol at prom.”

“We’re not, someone spiked it.” Rose replied calmly, taking another sip. “You’ll get drunk if you have too much.”

“Oh.” and that was the end of that conversation.

“John.” Rose said. There was that voice. The ‘we’re concerned about you’ voice. The ‘have you made up your mind about how you feel about Dave’ voice. “How do you feel?”

“I…” It was time to voice it out loud. Easy. Deep breaths. In, out. “I think I love him.”

“You think?” She asked. She knew what you meant, but hearing it again was like a fucking aphrodisiac to her, apparently.

“I love him.” You confirmed sternly. Or, as sternly as you could, whilst slowly getting intoxicated over a pink sugary drink.

“Then you should go tell him.” Kanaya inputted. “I believe I last saw him going outside, via those double doors, there.” She pointed a long, elegant arm over to the doors leading outside into the cool, evening air, where it was growing quite dark.

“Well done,” Rose put her hand on your shoulder, brushing away what must have been fluff, and smiling. “I’m proud of you.”

“Thanks.” You smiled a little at both of the girls, downing the rest of your drink, and helping yourself to another. Dutch courage. You licked your lips, tasting the sugary drink on them, and then moved away from the punch bowl, saying your goodbyes to the two girls and making your way to the doors.  
  
  
The cool air hit you like a brick wall, and you froze momentarily, trying to catch your bearings in the sudden slight chill, before closing the door shut with a click behind you, The space was barren; but in the near distance you could see a figure on the stands in front of the football field. You took a deep breath. It was now or never.  
Approaching the stands, it became quickly evident that you weren’t sure what would come of this. You could live happily ever after, or be left in the dust. But now you were here, you couldn’t exactly turn back. That would be cowardly.  
You climbed the steps once you had confirmed it was Dave, and you got to him, sitting down in silence next to him.

Out of the corner of your eye, you say him look you up and down, and you swore he even inched a little closer towards you. You cleared your throat. “It’s a nice night.”

Smooth.

“It is.” He nodded. It felt awkward, and you kind of regretted this. But still, you persevered. “Why aren’t you in bein’ the life and soul of the party, Egbert?”

“I came to find you. Why aren’t you in there?”

He shrugged. “Too loud. Too many people. Needed to come outside. Needed to think some things out.”

“Like what?”

“Y’know- the future, stayin’ in contact with everyone… you.”

“Me?” You asked, trying not to let the hopefulness show in your voice. “Why me?”

He didn’t answer that one. “Why did you want to come find me?”

“I wanted to talk to you. I miss you.” You replied, truthfully.

“I miss you too.” He replied, and his pinkie grazed yours. You took the initiative to hook your pinkie around his, before giving up and laying your entire hand over his hand.

He turned his hand over, and slotted his fingers in the spaces between yours. “I’m scared about the future,” he said. You turned to him for the first time since being here, and you frowned, silently urging him to carry on. “I want to be successful, I want people to be proud of me.”

“I’m proud of you.” You insisted, And it was true. Dave had so much potential, and he was reaching it. He made music, he did photography, art, he was writing a script for those shitty comics he drew. He had a bright future ahead of him. "I always have been."

And that seemed to count, to him. “Good.” He smiled. “That’s a fucking relief.”

It was quiet, again. You saw his raise a bottle to his lips and take a swig. “Are you drinking? Is that alcohol?”

“It’s a sip!” He defended. He didn’t seem drunk, so that was the main thing.

“What is it?” You asked.

“Some assholes spiked the punch. There was some left.” He took another drink. “And I’m taking care of it.”

“But why do _you_ have it?”

“Dutch courage.” He responded, putting the bottle down beside his feet.

“What? What for?”

You could tell he rolled his eyes, even behind his shades, and he gave a small smile. Before you knew it, he was leaning over, visibly nervous like a fifteen year old on their first proper date, and you didn’t know what was going on. That confusion didn’t last forever, however. Because when he closed that short distance, he kissed you.  
  
  
He...kissed you.

It was brief, and surprise took away most of the sensation, but it was there, and it was real, and you know that he felt at least something for you.

Emotion swelled up in your chest as you opened your mouth to speak. But, you were honestly just so surprised.

Dave looked scared. Like he felt he made a mistake. Even with his shades on (It was getting dark, why did he have his stupid shades on?) you could see the nervous regret etched into his features.

“Shit--I’m sorry, shit.” he dragged a hand through his hair, and you snapped out of your surprise to blink, ignoring the faint heat of your cheeks in favour for his. You were still holding onto his hand, and you squeezed it a little.

“Dave.”

“I just-- Fuck, I’m sorry. I’ve just liked you for so long and...No, fuck that. I love you, okay? But it’s completely okay if you don’t love me back, or feel anything for me. We can forget about it, okay? Go back to bein’ best buds on the trail of a life time. You’re probably gonna get back together with Vriska, right?”

You could practically feel the butterlies in your stomach going haywire. It was pure, honest confirmation. He loved you. He _loved_ you.

“Dave…”

“Yeah? Yeah, thought so. She’s a looker, and so are you, so it’d make sense. You’ll make beautiful babies. Just make sure I’m the godfather or someshit, okay? I’ll teach ‘em how to live. Teach ‘em to hotwire a car, how to ghost ride the whip, important stuff like that. Name one after me, too. Hell, name ‘em all after me, Dave and David and Davina and--”

“Dave!” You successfully got his attention, and he looked at you, mouth promptly shutting.

“...Yeah?” He asked, cautiously. Like he was talking to a hungry tiger, he didn’t want to make a wrong move, lest he get eaten.

You gave him a small smile, shifting closer than you already were, and pressing your free palm to the curve of his flushed cheek. “Shut up, asshole.”

And then, you returned the favour, closing the distance between the two of you, fluttering your eyes closed. It took him a few seconds to respond, but when he did...  
It was like a shot of electricity up your spine and fireworks behind your eyelids, you could feel the cacophony of your shared heartbeats and an orchestrated symphony of emotion and it was so perfect. Both of your respective eyewear clacked together and you felt him slip his shades onto the top of his head, exhaling a soft breath through his nose.  
His hand left yours, and you were momentarily disappointed. Or at least, you would have been, if he hadn’t moved his hands to trace, soft as silk, down your sides to stop at your waist. Never moving any lower, and never pressing down any harder than the softest brush. Your own hands tangled in his downy blonde hair, shifting ever closer and sliding your lips against his. They weren’t chapped, contrary to your expectations, they were soft and brushed against yours with ease.

In a sudden moment, Dave broke the kiss, breathing softly but audibly against your lips, touching his forehead to yours. His hands trembled slightly-- in fear or anticipation, you weren't sure-- against your waist, clinging against the dark fabric of your jacket. He opened his eyes, and.  
You never got tired of seeing those eyes. For some reason, Dave was always funny about showing people his eyes because of the colour, but they weren't the strangest things. Rose had purple eyes, and her older sister has pink, and you were pretty sure Jake once told you Dirk had orange eyes. So it wasn't that odd.  
You just thought they were beautiful.

"I'm sorry."

"You don't need to be."

"I took so long to say anything. Hell, I don't even know if you feel the same way. Shit could be a one-sided deal, for all I know. I mean, sure, you did kiss me back, but-"

"Dave." You said firmly, trailing your hands to his cheeks and looking at him. "You're rambling."

"I'm nervous." He defended, frowning.

"The impenetrable Dave Strider? _Nervous_?" You smirked, and he rolled his eyes.

"Even coolkids like me get nervous, John. It is you, after all."

Your face burned, and you were thankful for the fact that the sky was darkening at a fast pace. "Shut up..."

"Anyone'd lose their cool around you." He continued.

"Shut up..." You repeated bashfully, and then you said something that you hadn't said to him before. Something that, all considering, you had been waiting to say. "I love you."

That look him off guard. He pulled away slightly; just enough that he could see your face, to tell if you were being genuine. A few agonisingly long seconds passed.  
And then he smiled. Moving in again, he nuzzled the side of your nose lightly with his own and put his hands more firmly on your waist. His pale eyelashes fluttered as he closed his eyes again, and they tickled your skin.

“Good.” He said, quietly. 


	3. July 12th, 1994

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> f uKC  
> OKAY  
> I'M DONE  
> THIS TOOK WAY LONGER THAN IT SHOULD HAVE DONE  
> AND IT'S NEARING 10000 WORDS SO  
> HOLY SHIT  
> THANK YOU FOR STAYING WITH ME ON THIS JOURNEY  
> THIS HAPPENS TO BE THE FIRST TIME I'VE ACTUALLY WRITTEN SMUT??? SO PLEASE BEAR WITH ME
> 
> Fun fact: John is canonically left handed!

The two of you stayed like that for a while. Not kissing, not talking. Just...sat there, together. The minutes ticked on and the sky grew darker, and soon you could feel him shivering against you, and moving a little closer to leech off of your body heat. You laughed softly, and shifted as your legs started to grow a little numb. He gave you the same panicked expression he did when you first moved away from him that day, but you continued to cling onto his hand, rubbing your thumb over the warm, pale skin of it. “Do you want to go back in?” You asked.

Dave shrugged, and shifted closer again. You momentarily let go of his hand, took off your dress jacket and draped it over his shoulders. Giving a small hint of a smile, he answered you. “I kind of want to go home.” He admitted, truthfully. From the gym, you could hear the hint of soft music; it must have been the slow dance. You nodded and stood up, tugging on his arm for him to get up. And he did, holding onto your jacket with his free hand and leaving the bottle of mysterious alcohol there.

“Aren’t you picking that up?”  
  
“Nah,” He hopped down from the step and gave a careless look behind him. “The groundskeeper can have it.”  
  
“Littering is bad, Dave.” You reminded him with a teasing smile, and you began to walk, Dave trailing behind you.  
  
“I thought you liked the bad boys, John.”  
  
“I never said that.” The two of you got to the bottom of the stands and went towards the double doors you came out of. They opened with a pull, and you walked, hand in hand, towards some benches where you found Rose and Kanaya sitting. Kanaya had her arm around Rose’s waist, and was looking mildly concerned for her girlfriend. The girlfriend in question was sat, staring at the scuffed gym floor.  
  
“You okay, Lalonde?” Dave let go of your hand and sat beside the girl and awkwardly patted her on the shoulder.  
  
“Fine. Absolutely-” She paused to make a rather undignified burping noise, covering her mouth with the back of her hand and smudging lipstick on it. “ _Fine_.”  
  
“Rose has appeared to have drank a little too much of the punch. She’s had a bad reaction to it, and is rather intoxicated.”  
  
“I’m still coherent, Kanaya, I’ll have you know.” She looked up and gave Kanaya a mildly scathing glare. Even with the dim lighting, you could tell that her face was significantly flushed with the alcohol.  
  
“Is that so?” Kanaya asked, a smile forming, and she tucked a lock of pale hair behind Rose’s ear. You found yourself smiling; you wondered how long until it was okay to do dumb things like that with Dave.  
You looked back at him, and found him already looking at you, his eyebrows raised and an unreadable expression on his face. His shades were still on the top of his head, and he seemed to remember this, because he flipped them back down. Rose turned to him and cocked her head, raising her own eyebrows.  
  
“Why are you here? I thought you were…” She waved her hand around a little as she thought of the word she was looking for. “...sulking. I thought you were sulking outside?”  
  
“I don’t sulk.” He defended. You laughed abruptly and he gave you a look. Rose looked up at you too, only just noticing your presence, and she started to smile wryly.  
  
“Did you bring him in?” She asked.  
  
“Yeah. We were gonna go home.”  
  
“I see.” The smirk widened. “Is everything well? Did you have a nice talk?”  
  
“Fucking peachy. Fabulous.” Dave cut in, standing up quickly. You both knew that if you let her, she’d start saying that she ‘told you so’, without actually saying it. It was better to get out while you could. He reached over and grabbed your hand, beginning to walk away. He was always a fan of sudden exits and escaping when he wanted to avoid the subject, and apparently this was no exception. “Until next week.”  
  
“You can run, Dave.” Rose reminded him, before making another weird noise and covering her mouth again. She quickly recovered. “But you can’t hide.” She continued.  
  
“Bye, guys!” You waved with your spare hand, and the two girls waved back. “Uh, get well soon, Rose!”  
  
It occurred to you that as you walked hand in hand with Dave through the gym, some people were staring. You could see the faces of your friends, and people you barely knew the names of, and even the odd teacher dotted about, looking at you. But no one laughed, or made a bad comment. The majority were smiling, and a few gave a wolf whistle or two. You weren’t ashamed, but damn if you weren’t a little embarrassed. You got to the other side of the gym and left the doors, into the brighter and significantly quieter hallway. Tavros wasn’t at the desk, and the only sign of life seemed to be in the gym, and the odd group or two outside smoking. Dave squeezed your hand and you returned the gesture, and you walked outside.  
  
  
The mystery of where Tavros went was quickly solved when you saw he and Vriska sharing a cigarette just before the steps. She sat on the top step and he in his chair, and when the door closed behind you, they looked around, at you, and then down at your hands.  
  
“Ohhhhhhhh, what’s all this~?” Vriska asked gleefully, and she smiled, passing the cigarette back to Tavros as you walked towards her.  
  
“We were just leaving.” You pointed down the path. “We didn’t want to stay for the whole thing. Right?” You looked at Dave, and he nodded. “Right.”  
  
“Wow. How am I supposed to get home?” Vriska asked, quirking a brow and frowning. “Fucking inconsiderate, or what?”  
  
“I’ll ask if my dad can give you a ride?” Tavros asked, and she smiled again.  
  
“See? I made a good choice with this one.” She shook the wheelchair a little, and Tavros laughed nervously. “Call it an upgrade. Sorry, Johnny.”  
  
“I’ll live, I suppose.” You sighed, and Vriska straightened up, plucking the cigarette back from Tavros’ hand.    
  
“So you’re going back _together_?” The smile widened and she wiggled her eyebrows suggestively.  
  
“Yes, but! Only because we live by each other, Jesus.”  
  
“You sayin’ I’m not good enough for you?” Dave nudged you, and squeezed your hand. He wanted to leave. And to be fair, so did you. You scoffed, and you felt your cheeks grow hotter.  
  
“Shut up.” You squeezed his hand back, and directed your attention back to the boy and girl sat at the steps. “We’re going.”  
  
“See you soon.” Vriska said, like it was a promise. She looked at Dave, and smiled, looking more predatory than anything else. “Look after _my_ John, okay?”

_Her John?  
  
_ “Of course I will, he is _mine_ , after all.” He squeezed your hand again. He really wanted to leave. You knew he didn’t like her, even when you were dating her, and you guessed it made sense why, now.  
  
The smile stiffened, and she took a drag of the cigarette, handing it back to Tavros. “Have fun.”  
  
“Bye, guys.” Tavros waved his free hand and you smiled at the two of them, though more tenderly at Vriska. No matter what she said, or how diligently she tried to cover it up, she didn’t seem to be completely over you.  
  
  
You said your goodbyes, and went down the steps in silence, remaining quiet until you got to the car. You in the driver’s side, Dave in the front passenger seat. You turned the key in the ignition, and it was only when you pulled out of the school’s parking lot that it sank in.

_Of course I will, he is mine, after all.  
  
_ “You called me ‘ _yours_ ’.” You blurted out. He looked over at you and from the corner of your eye you could tell he smirked.  
  
“Yeah?”  
  
“I’m yours?”  
  
“You’re mine.” He confirmed. He looked out of the window again, before adding. “I mean. If you want to be, that is. No pressure.”  
  
You couldn’t help the smile on your face, and you mulled it over in your head, even though you had pretty much made up your decision from the get-go. “Mmm.”  
  
He looked back and you could see a more genuine smile, and the car was once again pulled into a comfortable silence. And so it remained until you got back, parking your car in the front of both of your houses, and getting out, walking around and opening the door for Dave.  
  
“What a _gentleman_.” Dave purred, and you laughed, all the while feeling your face flush again. You felt like a girl with a middle school crush on the cute boy in her class. Except, you weren’t a girl, you weren’t in middle school, and it wasn’t a crush. You were a male high school senior with a fully fledged homosexual infatuation with your best friend. But the details hardly mattered.  
  
You insisted on walking him to the door, and the air suddenly became tense as the two of you stood there.  
  
“I had a pretty good time.” You said, eventually. He nodded, and he rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly.  
  
“Me too…” He went to say something else, but decided against it, looking away towards the street.  
  
“So… uh.” All the confidence you had earlier from telling him how you felt, and having your feelings reciprocated was gone, and you just felt weird and awkward. “Thanks. I’ll just go..?” You made a move to go, but he caught your arm.  
  
His mouth opened again. And then closed, like he was some sort of demented goldfish. You stood back on the step with him and frowned at him. Honestly, you were just a bit confused.  
Dave got over the apparent nerves, and pressed a quick, chaste kiss to your lips. Your eyewear clicked together again, and you found that you could become very familiar with the sound. He pulled away again, before you could kiss back, and without thinking about it, you moved forward again, curling your hands into the fabric of the dress jacket on his shoulders and pressing up a little on your toes (not too much though, he was only the slightest bit taller than you- not that he didn’t make a big deal out of those few centimeters) as you kissed him back.

  
This time, he was more than happy to keep the slow kiss going. His own hands moved to your dark, messy hair, and cupped the back of your head, moving to press his chest flush to yours. Now that the issue of not being able to convey your feelings, or worrying about what he might have thought was gone, caution was thrown to the wind and you slid your lips against his eagerly.  
He took this as a sign to lightly tug on your bottom lip with his teeth, and even with your eyes closed, you could just tell he was smirking. You gasped a little, and he began to kiss you with a new-found fervour; moving his hands down to your waist and flicking his tongue hesitantly against your lips. You opened your mouth properly for him, and tilted your head upwards for his lips and tongue to meet yours.

You had time to really kiss, now, and... He was a very good kisser. You didn't have that much experience in kissing people, aside from Vriska when you were dating her, and a few other girls at spin the bottle, and that one time you gave cpr to a dummy when your class did first aid training in eighth grade (But you were pretty sure that last one didn't count), but you were pretty sure Dave was good at what he was doing. Or, at least, that's what the pleasant feeling in your chest and the goosebumps raising on your skin when he moved a hand to rest at the small of your back was telling you. Kissing Dave was a lot different from kissing Vriska, partly because he was a lot more considerate of how you felt about the situation, this wasn't just for him- you both wanted this, and partly because there were actually raw, real feelings there for Dave, rather than the attraction that you convinced yourself was love for Vriska. You found that you preferred this a great deal.

Your arms left his shoulders and slid into his hair, curling your fingers into the pale strands. You reached around to slip his shades back off, and he had no qualms about that. In fact, he parted from you ever so briefly in order for you to do that, and then he kissed you again, just as you held the shades in one hand behind his head, lightly tugging on his hair with the other. There was a soft thumping noise on the floor behind Dave as your jacket slipped off of his shoulders and onto the ground. You pulled away to look, see where it went so you could pick it up, but you barely stopped kissing Dave before he spoke in a lower, more coquettish tone than you had ever heard him speak in before against your lips. "Leave it, it won't go anywhere." And then he kissed you again.  
  
Despite the wonderful, too good to be true situation, you couldn’t ignore the nagging feeling and the worry in the back of your mind, and you stopped kissing long enough to speak, despite him pressing kisses against your lips as you spoke. "Someone might-" Kiss. "See us."  
  
"So?" Kiss. "Let 'em."  
  
"Dave-!" You were cut off with a particularly long kiss, and then he moved his head back to look at you, eyes lidded and burning with something you couldn’t quite place, a small grin on his face. His chest rose and fell with each soft breath against you, and you found yourself entranced for a moment, before snapping out of it. "I don't want anyone to see if it gets any worse!"  
  
"Worse, or _better_?" The smirk stayed even when you socked him in the arm. He hardly flinched, but you never had the best right hook, being left handed  
  
"I'm serious!"  
  
His smile deepened and the hands on your waist purposefully pressed against the fabric of your shirt. His skinny frame leaned up against you, and he gave you another, surprisingly chaste kiss. "There's no one at home, right now." He turned his head slightly at the front door.  
  
You breathed out a laugh. "Are you trying to illicit makeouts from me?"  
  
"Somethin' like that." He shrugged, and smiled. You reluctantly parted from each other, and he fished his keys from his pocket, unlocking the door and pulling you inside.

You didn't even have time to pick up your jacket.  
  
  
No sooner had you shut the door behind you that you felt your back hit it's surface. Dave's lips were back moving fervently against your own and his hands slid down your sides. Your hands found their way back into his hair and tugged a little harder than you had done previously, and he made a small, pleasant noise in the back of his throat. You did it again and he squeezed your ass in half hearted reciprocation.  
You gasped against his mouth and pressed up into the kiss, your back arching against the wood of the door and your chest pushing against his.

His hands resumed moving against your sides and over your chest, and you were beginning to get a little hot under the collar. Frankly, you were a little embarrassed about the fact, and you leaned your body back against the door so Dave wouldn't find out.   
To no avail apparently, because when he moved closer and slipped a knee in between your legs, pushing it lightly against your crotch, you gave a small and totally unmanly whimper from the back of your throat. He broke the kiss and raised his eyebrows, doing it again. You let out a soft, shaky sigh and his mouth curled into a positively gleeful grin. "Holy shit."  
  
"Shut up." You huffed, avoiding looking at his face. You were pretty sure your own face was some obnoxious shade of red, and suddenly you weren’t feeling as confident about the makeouts as you were before.  
  
"No, I'm flattered." His hands wandered aimlessly up your chest, before stopping at your tie and tugging it loose with a clear motive to slip it off of you. You let out another breath and looked back at him, and that same unidentifiable look in his eyes was back. Your hands moved from his hair to slip under the lining of his jacket, pushing the jacket over off of his shoulders so it slipped down around his elbows. He laughed at the action and moved to kiss a trail from the corner of your mouth to your pulse that hammered wildly against the surface of your skin. Your chest rose and fell a little quicker than it was beforehand, and your hands curled over his shoulders where his jacket once was. "If I can make you like this just by gettin' my tongue acquainted with your mouth, what can I do to make you scream my name?" He asked against your neck, while reaching down and actually palming your clothed dick, this time.  
  
It would probably sound cheesy in any other situation, but damn if it didn't make you moan. Not a gasp, and hardly a whimper. A clearly identifiable, if a little quiet, moan. This was apparently answer enough for the blonde- without another word, he pulled you off of the surface of the door by your hand and towards the stairs.  
The journey up the short flight of stairs was short, and yet far too long, as you were filled with anticipation and a nigh-on desperate lust. His hand gripped yours with a firm determination, and by the time you got up the stairs, you were in his room. He closed the door, and instantly his hands were back on you. Gone were the gentle, barely there touches- once he got confirmation that you were practically putty in his hands, the touches became more focused. Not to say he didn’t seem nervous. This was a pretty big thing, what the two of you were doing. Of course, he wasn’t nearly as nervous as you felt. Maybe he had done this before.

Dave’s back was to the door, and his hands moved diligently to slip off your tie and let it drop onto the floor. Missing the now familiar pressure of his lips on yours, you pulled him by the front of his shirt towards you. He seemed to get the idea, because he instantly kissed back, with just as much, if not more, fervor in his actions. Lips parted, and tongue met tongue, more confident than before. Your hands took their turn to brush over his chest and stomach, and you curled one hand around the tie around his neck to secure a hold on him, and to pull him even closer. His own hands moved down to your waist, pulling up a little and untucking your clean white shirt, running his fingers along the fabric, before gripping your hips again and walking you back a few steps until the back of your legs hit the end of the bed, and buckled.

The kiss ended then, partly because the both of you needed to breathe, and because you both posed a risk of biting the other's tongues off if you continued to kiss whilst moving like that. Your back hit the soft mattress, and you released a soft gasp of breath. Dave moved up to kneel over you, creating a cage around you with his arms, and looking down at you with a look of desire, and overwhelming affection.

It reminded you then of that night, back in April. When he said those words, and betrayed no other explanation than a sad expression. It was similar then, you sprawled out underneath him, but now you shared a look of complete adoration with your lidded eyes and breathless smiles, rather than a look of surprise on your part, and an expression of regret on his.

It could have turned out worse, you supposed. It took a lot longer than you would have liked to realise fully how you felt, even though you had, subconsciously, come to terms with the fact that Dave was the one that you wanted to spend the rest of your life with, and it took a long time for Dave to be able to properly tell you how he felt.

At this, you laughed gently and reached up to caress his face. His face lit up in a small smile, and he took the shades off of the top of his head and pulled your glasses off of your face, too, leaning over to his bedside table of dropping them the miniscule distance onto the surface. They made a clacking noise as they fell, and without them, you struggled to see anything beyond Dave, whose face hung only a foot above your own. But that was fine, it wasn't like you were going to be concentrating on anything else at this point.

He was so beautiful.

  
And all of a sudden, the spell was broken, and he leaned down, giving you a tender, slow kiss. It was different from the passionate kisses you were sharing, and the chaste kisses that opened the floodgates of your affection, but it did nothing to quell the electric shocks coursing through your body. Quite the opposite, in fact. Everywhere he touched felt warm, and you could feel goose bumps rising on your skin under your clothes. He broke the kiss and his hands were moving, slipping under your untucked shirt to touch the bare flesh of your torso. Your back arched under the touch, willing him to touch more of you, to press his body against yours, to do something to relieve you of the tension you were feeling. You reached up to clumsily untie the tie around his neck and slipped it off, biting back a shaky sigh as his fingers brushed over the taut skin over your chest. You undid the first couple of buttons of his shirt, and he batted your hands away gently, slipping his hands back out of your shirt and unbuttoning your shirt.

With the material separated, and your chest exposed, it occurred to you how vulnerable you were, staring up at him with a flushed face, a silently gasping mouth and a throat full of unspoken adoration. But you didn’t feel vulnerable. No, you loved Dave. You trusted him, and he loved you. You knew that much.

_I love you, I love you._

“I love you.” You were repeating it like a mantra in your head, and one slipped out. It wasn’t like you regretted it at all. Definitely not, once you saw the smile Dave gave you when he heard you say that. A smile that he only really gave to you, and even then, that was nigh on once in a blue moon.  

It was special.

He leaned back down and your lips met again. This kiss became less of a constant pressing and sliding of lips like before, and more a desperate, bruising act, passion concentrated into one gesture.  
You weren’t complaining.

Lips parted and tongues met again, your hands curled into his hair and tugged like you did before, hearing the gentle groan bubble in his throat like music to your ears. Fire started to curl back up in your stomach, resuming from before, and your hands left his hair to resume blindly unbuttoning his shirt, pushing it off of his pale shoulders and casting it onto the floor, and curling your hands over the lean muscles there. The two of you parted for air (apparently, that was a thing you needed-who knew?) and you got a good look at him.  
You never got tired of the view, even before you knew that these weird feelings were, and when you just put them down to ‘broship’. That so called ‘training’ his two older brothers put him through really did him a lot of favours. He was lean, but he had tone to his muscle. Fit, but not overtly or obnoxiously so. It looked good, and you could tell where the last throes of awkward adolescence was leaving him, and the sharper, mind numbingly handsome features that came to him when he hit puberty were suiting him more and more each day. But he was always handsome. He always got attention from the girls (and you, even if you didn’t realise it until until more recently) for as long as you knew him, and the all boys wanted to be him.

He obviously noticed you staring, because he smirked. “See somethin’ you like?” He asked. The Texan twang was showing more more than ever, and you weren’t sure if he was putting it on, if it was the alcohol bringing it out, or if it were that he couldn’t keep the accent down under the midst of distraction. Needless to say, the old 'Southern Gentleman' shtick was definitely working.

“You.” You responded. What else could you ever want? It was horribly cliché but at that moment, he was the only thing on your mind, your thoughts were just Dave, Dave, _Dave..._

He grinned and kissed your lips lightly, trailing kisses from your mouth to your pulse, leaving another bruising kiss there, trailing down to your collarbone and sucking on the soft, taut skin.  
Your breath hitched and your hands tightened over his arms. You tilted your head back and a shaking sigh left your lungs into the warm air of Dave’s room. In any other instance you would have gotten up to open the window, but there was no way you were leaving your place here. As he pulled off of your neck and made a lewd sucking noise as his lips separated from your skin, you felt the blood rush to your face, as well as...other places.  No sooner had his lips left your collar, that he abused another part of your neck, higher and far more visible than the last one.You could feel the bruise rising when he pulled away and you scowled as best as you could, with a gorgeous guy leaning over you and very quickly rising boner.

His hands were slipping down your chest to your thighs, and it honestly surprised you how relaxed he was, and how he knew what he was doing. He knew how to elicit a reaction from you, at least. It kind of gave you the impression that he had done this sort of thing before with someone, and it made you jealous. It went almost without saying that you were as big a virgin as they came, you were pretty sure that you were one of the few non-social rejects that hadn’t slept with someone. You wanted to think that it was because you were ‘preserving yourself’, but you knew it was just because you just hadn’t had the chance, yet. But the reason it made you jealous was because if what you suspected of Dave was true, then he could be constantly comparing sex with you and sex with whoever he had been with before. And the only thing that made you more nervous than the act itself was the fact that you might not be good enough for Dave, as stupid and superficial as that may have sounded.

Then, there was the fact that the person he had had sex with before wasn't you.

“Something wrong?” He asked. He knew exactly what was wrong. That shit eating grin he was giving you told you that for sure. That bastard.

“That better not be bruising.” You sounded remarkably composed despite how you were feeling. The smile he gave you then was more guilty.

“... _Weeell_...”

“Dave!”

“We’ll deal with it tomorrow.” He promised, and with that, a hand slid back up your leg, dancing teasingly around your crotch, feather light touches brushing only very occasionally over your dick. Your hips canted up, desperately and mindlessly seeking his touch. He granted your unasked request, pressing his palm up against your crotch, and you groaned. His hand and your dick were separated by two layers of material, and you could feel the difference in the muted touches. “If I only knew about these noises earlier.”

“Shut u-aah..!” Another noise, an embarrassingly high keen, interrupted your words. He grinded his palm up against you, and he gave you that insatiable smirk again. You couldn't help rutting against his hand, and the same noise sounded in your throat.

That surprised him. "Holy shit." He said. "Out of all the noises you've made so far, that one's my favourite.

You scowled and slid your hand up to the back of his neck and pulled him back down for a rough, opened mouthed kiss, twisting your tongue more forcefully this time against his. He wasn't complaining. He leaned down further, pushing the shirt still on your shoulders down your arms, and you sat up a little to take it off and abandon it somewhere, now propping yourself up on your elbows.  
  
By that time, he wasn't hanging over you anymore, instead he had moved down your body, kissing down your neck. Where you thought he'd leave another hickey, he instead passed your collarbone with no more than a kiss, and-- oh _God._

He laved his tongue over your nipple, swiping a thumb over the other, and another moan, like a plea for him to just touch you more than he already had been, tumbled from your mouth. You could feel him smirk against your chest, before closing his mouth down on a nipple and pulling his mouth off of it with a gentle suck.

"D-dave..." You gasped out. He looked up and moved his hand down your stomach, fingers barely touching the skin.

"...Beautiful." He said quietly. It was so embarrassing for him to say something dumb like that, but you brushed it off. Even in the dark, the blush on his cheeks was obvious and steadily growing. It looked like not even Dave Strider was immune from the side effects of arousal.

You sat up a little more, and shifted backwards on the bed, curling your finger impatiently towards yourself, coaxing him forward. You were both completely on the bed now, and you pressed your lips to his again and again, reaching to unbuckle his belt and fiddle with the button and zipper on his dress pants.  He seemed to get the message and broke the kiss, helping you with the rest of the job, pulling off his shoes and socks before tugging his pants off and letting them join the rest of the growing pile of clothes. Next it was your turn. He waited patiently (or at least, as patiently as he could) for you to take your own footwear off, before he practically pounced on you, unbuckling your belt far easier than you did his and slipping your pants off.

  
You were both in your boxers, too close and yet not close enough. You curled your hand around the back of his neck and pulled him down for another messy kiss full in tongue and passion. Breathless pants came from the both of you, and more often than not, you could feel Dave’s want for you brushing against your leg. So you did what any gentleman would do, and you grinded your own hips against his, earning yourself a low moan from Dave, which you happily drank up amongst your own, louder keening. An inexpert rhythm started between the two of you, and your shared grunts mingled in the otherwise silence of the room. You didn’t want to finish it like this, though. You broke the desperate and perfectly suffocating kiss you held with him, and held his cheeks gently again, speaking in breathless, secretive tones. “Dave,”

His movements slowed to a stop, and his hands were on your waist from where he put them after taking your pants off. His thumbs rubbed soothing little circles into the skin, and he looked down with a silent adoration at you. There was no irritation that you suddenly stopped the rhythm between you at all, and you found yourself falling in love with him a little more because of that. “Yeah?”

“Have sex with me.” That came out far easier than you thought it would. In fact, it’s Dave who’s more surprised than you are, and he opened and closed his mouth a few times before he actually spoke. And when he did speak, he smiled, almost like he couldn't believe his good fortune.

“Are you sure?” He asked.

“I wouldn’t say it if I didn’t want to.”

“No I mean. Is it okay to? Like, do you know what happens? I literally have to stick both my fingers and my dick up your ass. Not at the same time, but consecutively. Shit’s gonna get all hells of uncomfortable and-” You cut off the ridiculous rambling with a briefly lingering kiss, and a grin once you pulled away again.

“Yes, Dave. I know what happens.” You lied. Okay, so you didn’t know he was supposed to put his fingers up your butt, but it was all a learning progress, right? “I’m sure.”

The corner of his mouth lifted in a crooked smile, and he moved away from you. It was your turn to have that horrible moment of panic set in when he moved away from you, because what if he changed his mind and didn’t want to do this any more? You sat up a little more. “Where are you going?”

“Lube and a condom.”

“You have that?”

"I'm a teenage boy who jacks off on a regular basis and has had sex before. Yeah, I do."

"Oh." So he had had sex before. The thought made you feel jealous. “...With a girl or a guy?”

“...Both.” He retrieved the condom and lube and climbed back onto the bed. “Why, are you jealous?” He asked, with the hint of a smile. You huffed.

“What if I am?” You asked, your face turning a little pink. Because you were a little jealous. He _would_ be comparing his experience with other people with yours! His smile softened and put the things in his hands down on the bed before he brushed his hands over your sides with the gentleness he displayed earlier, when he first told you how he felt.

“Dude, relax.” He said to you, quietly. “I’m having sex with you, not them, aren’t I? Besides, I didn’t even like them, all that much. I was just trying to get rid of my frustration of being able to fuck you.” You blushed deeper. That was pretty blunt. Blunter than you’d expect from him. “I love you, not them.”

Your expression softened. Maybe asking him ruined the mood. “I love you too.”

He smiled gratefully and kissed you again, before parting from you and letting a hand moving steadily south and tugging at the waistband of your boxers.

_Or maybe it didn’t._

“Did you wanna take them off?” You murmured against his lips.  
  
“That was the idea, yeah.”  
  
“Alright, uh.” You shifted, and he slid the thin article of clothing slowly down your legs, pulling them from your feet and dropping them onto the floor. Then he spent a few moment just looking at you. Almost like he was admiring your body. You felt kinda self conscious right then, and you folded your arms over your chest and averted your eyes from his gaze. “Stop staring.”  
  
“You don’t need to be embarrassed.” He moved his hand up to your dick, sliding his hand down the shaft. The texture of his rough hands made you whine, and all at once your arms loosened from their folded position back onto the bed. “Especially if you make noises like that.” He pumped your dick a few times until it was fully erect again, looking as if he was drinking in your every moan and gasp. By this time your hands were gripping at the sheets on his bed a little, biting down on your lip. And then, his hand was gone, and he was pushing you back down onto the bed. You stared at the ceiling and you could feel a cap being popped open. You guessed that was the lube. You looked up at Dave, and your suspicions proved to be correct, and he was coating his fingers in it, warming it up. How courteous. He really did know what he was doing with this. Your chest was rising and falling with each breath, and he looked and locked eyes with you, shifting and pushing your legs apart a little more, sitting in between them. He gazed down at your body with a smile. “You’re gorgeous.”  
  
“Are you just saying that to get in my pants?” You grinned up at him, and he laughed a little.  
  
“I think I’ve already achieved that.” He then coughed a little, awkwardly. “I’m gonna put my finger in, now.”  
  
“Oh, yeah.” You nodded and took a deep breath, laying your head back down on the pillow. “Well, go ahead. Deflower me.”  
  
That made him laugh again. Making jokes made it less awkward, you thought. Jokes were good. “Really gotta work on your bed talk, dude.”  
  
“Would you rather me make it dirtier?” You looked up and wiggled your eyebrows with a smirk.  
  
“I’ll hold you to that, for another time.” He smirked just as much. “I’m gonna…” He pressed his index to the tight ring of muscle, and you jolted a little with another gasp. “You alright?” He looked concerned.

“Yeah, yeah. I’m fine, I think.” You nodded. “It just surprised me.”  
  
“Do you want me to stop?”

“No!” You said, quickly. You definitely hadn’t changed your mind. You wanted more than anything for this to happen. “Please. Don’t stop.” He nodded, and ever so slowly, pushed his finger in a little. It hurt a little, but nothing you couldn’t deal with. it was just weird, and foreign. And uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable. You shifted a little. “At what point does this start to feel good..?”  
  
“Not yet...I’ve only put my finger in a little. I have to find somethin’, just be patient.” He said. “Jesus fuck, you’re really tight.”  
  
“I wonder why?” You quipped back.

He ignored you and pushed his finger in further, making your grip on the sheets grow tighter. “I’m in.” He said quietly. In any other situation, you would have laughed, because damn if he didn’t sound like one of those dumb movie hackers. But you didn’t, for obvious reasons. “Gonna move it now.” He added.  
  
You nodded, swallowing before speaking. “Y-yeah.”  
  
He started moving his finger in and out, slowly at first to let you get used to the feeling, before he began to curl his finger this way and that, as if he was looking for something. The room was silent other than your shared heavy breaths, and the slick sound of his finger, and-- _Oh_.  A jolt of pleasure shot up your spine, and a sound close to a moan caught in your throat. You weren’t sure what that was, but it felt anything but terrible.  
  
He grinned in silent victory and curled his finger again, brushing it against something and hearing another sound from you. Then he started to move his finger this time, faster than before, and you found yourself pushing a little against the finger, in a desperate bid to feel him more, panting like you had just ran up a hill, and moaning like a whore. You knew you made some noise when you touched yourself alone, but you never realised you would make this much noise when it came to a sex situation.  
  
Dave didn’t seem to mind. If anything, it just made him more eager to loosen you up, and he added another finger without telling you, and you sucked in a surprised breath, shifting briefly to encompass the added finger. He moved his fingers the same as before, brushing very occasionally on what you supposed was your prostate, making you impatient and pushing against his fingers. He tutted and smirked, adding a third finger and moving faster. “Impatient, aren’t we?”  
  
“Shut up and fuck me, for Christ sake.”  
  
  
He made a small noise of approval and slid his fingers out, wiping them on the sheets. “Yessir.” And with that, he moved away to pull his own boxers off. Like yours, his own dick was straining against his underwear, and now that they were off, you could see all of him. He was longer than you, but thinner. Even so, it was still going to be a completely different experience than having fingers inside you.  
  
This was actually happening. You were going to have sex. With Dave. Your best friend.

_Holy shit._  
  
“You okay?” He asked you, with a knowing grin. “You’re starin’ a lot, gonna make me self-conscious if you’re not careful.”  
  
You shook your head. “No, it’s just...holy shit. We’re actually doing this.” You said quietly, with a small smile. “And it’s you. You’re so perfect.”  
  
“Well shit, you’re gonna make me blush, Egbert.” He matched your small, genuine smile with his own and scratched the back of his head with embarrassment. “You’re pretty perfect yourself, y’know.”  
  
You laughed breathily and dropped your head back onto the pillow. You could hear the foil of the condom packet being ripped open, and after a minute or so the cap of the lube being popped open again, and the sound of it being slicked over something. No prizes for guessing what. He moved back so he was in between your legs, and you looked back up at him just as he was lifting your hips up to position himself.

You were really doing this.  
  
“Are you ready?” He asked quietly. You nodded, and he pushed in the slightest bit.

As you suspected, this was so much different from his fingers. It pushed against your insides a little more and you shifted uncomfortably, hissing a little at the size difference and biting down on your lip. He stopped, letting you adjust. “You’re really tight.” He repeated, and you let out a small pant in response. It felt so weird. He stroked your thigh a little, trying to get you to calm down, before continuing slowly, stopping occasionally to let you adjust until he was fully seated. “Okay?”  
  
“Mm...yeah. It’s just weird. Not used to it.” You shifted around a little and trained your eyes back on him, pushing your bangs out of your face. He grinned and moved a hand to push your bangs away from your forehead himself.

"You always did have post-coital bedhead.” He said with a smile bordering on a wicked smirk. “Guess that’ll turn out to be true this time, huh?” Sighing, you rolled your eyes and raised your knees up a little around him.

“Shut up.”

He chuckled, rubbing your thigh again. You looked up at the ceiling and took a deep breath.

You were actually doing this.

  
“I’m gonna move now.” He said, and you nodded, bracing yourself. He began to move, slow like the first time he slid his fingers into you. He was letting you get used to it, and you really appreciated that. Dave’s dick wasn’t crazy big, but you never had something up your ass before. It was weird, and kind of uncomfortable, but not entirely unpleasant. Besides, you wanted to do this, and you want to feel all of Dave. You wanted to make Dave feel good, and you wanted him to want you. You were quickly getting used to it, and soon he was picking up some speed, and-- _oh holy shit._  
  
The same feeling as before hit you as he grazed against the bundle of nerves, and you let out a keen, your hands moving to the pillow at your head to cling at it a little. He hit it again and you felt goosebumps rise despite how sweaty you were, and your back arched, pushing against his chest, wanting to get closer and feel more of him and just be one with him.  
  
With each sound you made, the each time he grazed past and then hit your prostate head on, you felt yourself getting a little closer. You supposed you couldn’t expect yourself to last very long, you were a virgin (former virgin, if this was anything to go by), but you didn’t care. Neither did Dave, he just seemed to be drinking up the moans and whines that spilled from your mouth with every thrust he made. Then, when you pushed back against his force and moved of your own accord to meet his hips, he panted out his own noise, arching over you and pressing a messy, uncoordinated kiss to your lips, twining his fingers with yours on the pillow. The kiss was awkward, and it was sloppy, but it was perfect.

_I love you, I love you, I love you._

At this point you weren’t even kissing, just brushing your parted lips against each other as the two of you moved against each other, sharing gasps and pants and moans and unspoken words of adoration. Your fingers stayed laced with his, squeezing clammy hands together and curling your free hand into his light hair, looking up at him with unfocused eyes and seeing the red in the light eyes stare down russet at you, eyelids heavy and pale lashes dusting freckled skin as he blinked.  
  
He was so beautiful.

You were close, you realised, and you pushed against Dave’s thrusts with a slight urgency, breath getting more ragged like you had ran a marathon or something. Dave himself was looking flustered and a little sweaty, and his thrusts became disjointed and irregular. He was muttering curses underneath his breath and he used his free hand to hook your leg up over his waist, using that as an anchor to hit you head on more often than not. Your vision was starting to go fuzzy and you gasped out his name a few times like a prayer. Which made sense, you were pretty close to seeing nirvana with this.  
  
 _So close…_

He was holding onto your leg tightly, thrusting into you and squeezing your hand in a way that would only be described as heart wrenchingly vanilla. But it was perfect. So, so perfect, and you loved it. You loved it and you loved him, and--

 "D-Dave..!"

“ _John_ ,” He panted against your lips, and you saw white. You were pretty sure you said his name, though however loud it might have been was beyond you, and you came. You were gripping onto his hand tightly and it took a few seconds for your vision to clear up. You rode out your orgasm with Dave as he finished half a minute later, a perfect cry of your name, with his face buried into the crook of your neck in an attempt to muffle the sound. Though you’re pretty sure everyone and their dog must have heard your escapade. You couldn’t find it in you to care right now, though.   
It took him about a minute to come down from his high, and he panted into your neck, squeezing your hand once more before pulling out of you, leaving you feeling horribly empty, and letting go of your gross, sweaty hand. Dave pulled the used condom off and dropped it in the trash beside his bedside table, using the tissues in the drawer to wipe the both of you off, and he led down next to you, and you stared at the ceiling in silence. It was he who broke it first. “That was good.”

“I loved it,” You agreed. You turned over, shifting uncomfortably to look at him. “I love _you_.”

He smiled, and turned over himself, “I love you too.” He moved a hand upwards to brush the hair from your face again. “Did it hurt? I mean, you’re a grin an’ bear it kinda guy, so I just don’t know. Don’t want you just saying you liked it when you feel like you’ve been fucking torn in half.”

You rolled your eyes and moved closer to him, wincing a little as you shifted. That’ll hurt in the morning. “Ah- it’s fine. I did like it.”

“Yeah, that’s probably gonna hurt a little by tomorrow?” He looked apologetic. “Sorry about that, that’s kind of a thing for first timers.”

“Did it happen to you?” You asked, draping your arm over his side and lowering your head back onto the pillow.

“I haven’t had the pleasure of having a dick up my ass.” He replied, matter of factly, and he sat up to pull the blanket at the end of his bed up to cover the both of you, lying back down and letting you reposition your arm, moving his own to drape over your hip.

“Hmm.” You hummed to yourself, the smile on your face sleepy and content and plotting all at once. “There’s a first time for everything.”

“What? No, no. Shut up. You were a virgin ten minutes ago, don’t be getting any ideas, you can fuck off.”

“I’d rather fuck you.” You wiggled your eyebrows with a grin, and he scoffed good naturedly.

“Sorry bro, you ain’t in no position to be fuckin’ anyone.” The texan slur was back, more because he was tired than anything out. “Neither am I, actually.” He paused to yawn loudly. His hand slipped back up to curl his fingers into your hair and play with his idly.  
  
Maybe it was because he were tired out from the sex, but it was really nice, and was working wonders in lulling you to sleep, You cuddled closer, and as you drifted off to sleep, you were certain you felt him kiss the top of your head, and the butterflies that already fluttered idly from the night erupted into life.

 

****  
**July 19th, 1994**

  


Graduation robes were heavy, uncomfortable, and were too warm in the midday sun, you discovered as you sat on the old plastic chairs that had been specially cleaned and dragged out for the occasion. Your principal had been giving a speech, and Feferi Peixes stood to give the motivational speech. She was popular and nice, and had been named the prom queen after the previous week, it only made sense that she would be the one to give the speech. But you weren’t paying attention to that.  
No, you kept looking back and pulling faces at Dave.  
  
Dave who just so happened to be your boyfriend.

**  
** The morning after prom, you woke up, confused and more than a little bit sore, and while you were at first surprised and shocked that you were naked with Dave in bed, it quickly became clear to you what happened and the shock diffused and was replaced with the realisation of what you did. And you discovered that you didn’t have a problem with it. It was weird and unfamiliar, but for the first time in a while, you felt really happy. You settled down into his arms (not without noticing how fucking sore you felt, he wasn’t lying when he said it’d hurt the following morning) and lay there for a few more minutes until he woke up too. And then you just lay there in each other’s arms, your breathing the only noise in the room. Eventually, you spoke, asking him how he slept, how he felt… you told him you loved him. Tentatively, as if you were worried that last night’s confessions were imagined, that all of what happened would be taken back in an instant. And then he returned it, almost instantly. He loved you back, it wasn’t a dream, or just your imagination. You smiled and kissed him, and stayed in bed for another hour or so.

“Hey,” He turned his head to you, interrupting your ramble about something you watched on TV a few nights prior.

You stopped, looking up from where your head was on his chest. “Yeah?”

“So I’m under the impression that this mutual yes-homo thing is something that has been going on for a while."

You drew patterns on his stomach with your finger as you thought, and he batted it away half heartedly. "I guess so. I didn't know it was love, I thought it was just some next-level best friend-dom."

"Yeah, well. I had some crazy idea that we should seal the deal on this mother, make this shit official."

“What are you implying?” You asked. You couldn’t help the hope rising in your stomach. It sounded like he was trying to ask you out. Like, properly. Going steady, getting into a relationship. It sounded like Dave was asking you to be his boyfriend.

“You know… do you want to make this a thing?”

“A thing?” You asked with a smile. He was so awkward, completely different from last night. It was cute. You knew he wasn’t used to confrontation like this at all.

“You piece of shit, you know what I mean.” He poked your side and you squirmed a little. “Do you wanna date?”

Your grin widened. “Dave,” You began. “Are you asking me to be your boyfriend?”

He averted his gaze. “Well yeah,” He said after a moment. “It looks like it.”

“Okay.”

He looked back at you with a smile. “Cool.”

With a smile matching his own, you leaned up the short distance and kissed the corner of his mouth, too lazy and comfortable to do anything more. “Cool.”

**  
** And so you were in a relationship. Dave’s brothers found out as soon as you walked downstairs with Dave, wearing one of his shirts and a pair of his sweatpants that had to be rolled up at the cuffs, they were that long. Perhaps that didn’t help, or maybe it was the numerous hickeys you were sporting that clued them in. Either way, they didn’t say anything, but the way Dave’s eyebrows furrowed and his face tinged when they looked even slightly in your direction told you they definitely knew.    
That was only confirmed when Bro told Dave to wash his sheets just before you left for your own house.

You had the feeling your dad knew. You weren’t sure if it was the hickeys, or the borrowed clothes, or the overall look of happiness you had about you, but he didn’t bring it up. He smiled at you a little wider when he saw you, asked how prom went, and left it at that.  
You knew you had to tell your dad he probably wouldn’t be getting any grandkids any time soon, at least not by any normal means, but you guessed that could wait. You could talk it out with Dave eventually.

  
  
The end of Feferi’s speech cut through your thoughts, and then your classmates were going up alphabetical order to collect their certificates and diplomas. Eventually, you were called and you received it, shaking your principal’s hand and smiling for a picture, before sitting back down and waiting. You saw Jade go up, then Rose, and finally Dave. It wasn’t too long before the last student went up, Zahhak or something, and you were all invited to stand up. The principal made another speech, saying how proud he was of all of you (he reminded you of your dad when he did that), and everyone cheered, throwing their mortarboards in the air.  
  
Everyone hugged each other and went to their families, you got hugs from people that you didn’t know the names of, as well as people you did know; Rose, Jade, Kanaya and Vriska, and your sister and dad came up to give you a hug, accompanied by Jake and their grandpa. Everyone talked about what you wanted to do in the future, how proud they were of you, but it was just white noise. You were happy that they cared, and all, but you couldn’t help but feel distracted. Really, you just wanted to find Dave.  
  
You made an excuse to escape, and they left to wait by the car for you. Pushing through the crowds of happy families and happier students, you looked for Dave, finding him stood in a space with his brothers, fiddling with his mortarboard and looking like he really wanted to take the uncomfortable clothes off. His brothers must have spotted you first, because they stopped talking, exchanged a look and Bro gave Dave a smirk and a pat on the shoulder, leaving with Dirk to go wherever. You chose this as your chance to attack. You creeped up to him, stifled a giggle, and poked his sides, laughing when he yelped and spun around, looking surprised and a little pissed off. Once he recognised it was you, though, his expression softened, and his stiffened shoulders relaxed. “Not cool, Egbert. Not cool.”

“I know you’re not, you don’t have to repeat yourself.” You sniggered and nudged his arm with your elbow playfully. He offered you a small half smile and nudged you back. With that, you had a short, impromptu elbowing match, before you caught yourself and you stood there, giggling like assholes. He looked at you again with a more reserved, almost sad expression.

“I’m gonna miss you.” He said, quietly. You smiled and slipped your hand into his, squeezing it a little.

“You can’t get rid of me, that easily.” You chuckled, and he knocked his shoulder against yours.

“That’s okay,” He said. “Wouldn’t want to, in the first place.”

Your troubles started on April 9th, 1994, but they ended on July 12th, when you finally realised how you felt about Dave. And although you’d face more troubles in the future, you knew you wouldn’t have to face them alone.  
  
  
And really, that didn’t make them seem as bad.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for sticking with me through this, I hope you've enjoyed the shitfest that is my writing!  
> I'm planning two fics atm, one that's more of a idly daydream and one that is actually being written, so expect only oneshots from me until they come into fruition.


End file.
